Kingdom Hearts: Keys of Destiny
by Black Scepter
Summary: When three brothers get the chance to go on a journey with Sora, Donald, and Goofy, they will battle across the universe to save their friends and family. And maybe find their destinys. First in the K.N.I.G.H.T.S series.10 CHAPTERS.
1. Dive into the Heart

Kingdom Hearts

Keys of Destiny

Disclaimer: We do not own anything that is shown here except Michael, Mark, and Matt.

Written by: Michael, Mark, and Matt Fri.

Music inspired by NightFire04s stories, I hope he doesn't mind if borrow his idea, it's just too cool

* * *

Prologue

Dive to the Heart

Have you ever tried to understand the secrets of life, well stop right there. Because if you think you know every secret there is, you don't, but I'm getting ahead of myself let me start where it began for all of us…

It was the coldest day of summer when me and my brothers, Matt and Michael just got back from visiting our friends and I was feeling very tired.

"Hey Mark, you going upstairs," Michael asked.

I turned to face my older brother and just nodded noncommittally. I am thirteen years old, I have short dirty blond hair, which is parted over my right eye, I also have ever so slightly tanned skin, I am slightly tall for my age, and I have hazel eyes.

I went upstairs to our room, where I got into bed and dozed off, but then I noticed something weird, I sat up and scanned the room, then I saw in the dark corners of my bedroom; a long white beard with the tip of it just touching the floor.

"What the-", I said, still very tired.

"Good, you are awake."

I tried to get a good look at him, but he was in the shadows.

"Who are you," I asked.

"That is not for you to know, now where are your brothers?"

But as he said that the door opened, and in came the others.

Matt was ten years old, he had short brown hair; his skin was a dark tan, and he was pretty stocky for his age. Michael had Black hair that was shaped a lot like Sam from Supernatural, he had fare skin which was lighter than both of us, he was tall, but not too lanky, like Matt and I he had hazel eyes.

They looked around the room, and noticed the same transparent white beard in the shadows.

"Who are you," they both asked.

He ignored their question, and proceeded to explain as to why he was here.

"You all look like you could help… him."

"Help who," Matt asked

"Sora."

There was a long silence, and then Michael finally spoke:

"What do you mean Sora, the guy from Kingdom Hearts?"

The man (or thing), moved backwards some more to look at all of us.

"Let your heart decide," he simply stated.

"Huh," I said, but all of a sudden I felt drowsy.

I fell backwards and just kept falling, then I closed my eyes and everything went dark.

* * *

(Marks POV)

I woke up feeling cold and hot at the same time, I stood up and looked around, there was enough light allowing me to see through the darkness. I looked down to see I'm on a big platform, with a big picture of, well, Snow White. Yes, call me crazy, but that's what it was, I must have slapped myself so many times that my cheeks were red before I decided to move on, but I only took two steps before I saw a podium come out of ground, I went over to it and there on the stand was a Gladiators blade.

"Wait I know this part, but what about the other weapons; the wand and the shield," I mused, as I unsheathed the sword from its bright blue sheath.

The handle was gold and blue, and the blade was small and stout, then I heard a voice:

_"The sword; the power to destroy all, is this power the one you seek?"_

"Well, I don't have much of a choice now do I," I said, swinging the stout blade.

It emitted a bright light, and it blinded me, but only for a second. When opened my eyes I notice the scenery changed, now I was on a wooden deck and standing in front of me was Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie, but something was weird: they had weapons out and they were staring at me.

I was confused, "what the?"

"Let the trial began," Tidus said, but instead of a young boys' voice, he spoke like that man from before.

_(Play, Savior, Nobuo Uematsu)_

I unsheathed my sword ready to fight, but one thing I have to say; I know nothing about sword fighting, other than sparing with my brothers and my friends. So I waited for them to attack first and sure enough Tidus comes charging in, swinging his sword downward, I leapt backwards and then I stepped on his blade to prevent him from swinging upwards. I swung my blade at him taking this chance to attack, but before it could connect something hit my nose, it felt like I was punched I felt my blood come out of my nose, and I noticed a Biltzball bounce into the arms of Wakka.

So instead I ran at him, but then a rope wrapped around my neck. It was so tight, I could not breathe, I grabbed the rope and pulled. Selphie was yanked off her feet and as she flew past me, I quickly cut the rope and Selphie sailed towards Wakka, I felt a sense of grim satisfaction at tossing one of the attackers into the other, but before Selphie knocked out Wakka, he threw his ball at me. I quickly took my sword and batted the ball towards Tidus, it hit him in the face and he fell over. However to my surprise he was back on his feet, he grinned evilly at me and charged forward; he dragged his sword on the wood deck and did an upper strike, I quickly swung my blade downwards and blocked the blow.

But then he pulled his sword back and did series of quick cross strikes, Tidus then raised his sword and brought it straight down, but I managed to dodge it, barely. I growled, the quick strikes Tidus did cut through my shirt and gave me small cuts, then I did something that surprised Tidus; I dropped my sword and punched him a few times in the chest and finished with an upper cut to the chin, Tidus couldn't take the punishment and fell down. I tensed waiting for something else to come charging at me, instead my sword started to glow, and I found myself on the Sleeping Beauty mural.

_(End Savior)_

In front of me I saw a set of stairs, which were very colorfull, but when I was about half way up the stairs shattered, and as I fell down a bright light overtook me and I passed out.

* * *

(Michaels POV)

Darkness. It was as though someone pulled a blindfold over my eyes, the worst part was I couldn't adjust to the perpetual color that blinded my eyes. Then I felt something, something hard on my back, like hard metal because it was cold and solid, when I turned around the first thing I saw was the color yellow. I realized I could see, or at least stare at the floor I am standing on; it was mural-like painted in multiple colors together forming an image, and I gasped because the image the mural showed: were Sora, and my brothers Matt and Mark. Then all of a sudden a voice spoke from the eternal abyss beyond me:

_(Play, The Promised Land, Nobuo Uematsu)_

_"Chosen hero, heed my message; the young boys below you will face a journey full of dangerous challenges, unfortunately their strength alone will not be enough to survive the evil beyond."_

Then I see a glint of light above me and something falls to my feet; a katana. The katana is about 7 1/2 inches tall from the hilt to the hand guard, the blade itself is roughly about 22 inches tall, the hilt is colored black, the hand guard is circular and bright silver, and the blade was blood red, but other than that it was a basic shape for a katana.

_"They will need others to aid them; will you use your power to vanquish the threat that plans to destroy everything we hold dear?"_

I stepped up to the sword, grasped the blades' hilt, and pulled it out of the ground, or glass, or whatever.

"I don't know what's going on, but if my brothers are in danger you better believe I'll protect them, to put it short: Hell yes!"

"_Well spoken."_

_(End, The Promised Land)_

Then the glass beneath me shattered, and I began to fall into the darkness, when my eyes readjusted I saw that the mural showed the Keyblade, or at least the Kingdom Key and then the voice echoed out again:

_"But hold, you have yet to prove your strength, defeat the foe in front of you and your journey will begin."_

I nod and get into a battle stance, holding my katana with two hands at my side.

"Bring it."

A few minutes later there was this sound; footsteps coming from behind me. I looked behind me and I stared in shock; it was myself.

_(Play Battle in the Forgotten City, Nobou Uematsu) _

The other me, or my anti-form if you prefer, stood in front of me and smirked, when it did its eyes flashed yellow, then strands of darkness shot out of the ground and coated it in a pure black aura, the only thing not colored black was its yellow eyes. Anti-Michael drew a katana made of a pure black material and got in a battle position, I followed suit and we both stood there for awhile, then the battle began: Anti-Michael charged forward, katana raised over his head, I raised mine and blocked the blow. I had no blade training, sure I spared with my brothers, but I never fought in a real sword duel so I decided go defensive until I had a better plan.

I pushed my Anti form away and raised my sword holding, it a few feet in front of my body to put some distance between the shadow and me, but it seemed to disregard this and ran toward me again this time thrusting forward, I spun out of the way and swung my blade at its shoulder and missed. The shadow pressed on with the attack and I was caught in a dodging frenzy, then I realized the one advantage I have over it; the shadow had no skill, none whatsoever, it was acting on pure instinct, just like Matt when I take his DS from him. So I started to do a series of complex sword moves, or fake it anyway.

The shadow seems to fall for it and backed up warily, then I charge forward and faked a swing to the right, then jabbed forward, the shadow fell for the decoy and I plunged my katana in its chest, then it falls onto one knee, weak from the blow.

_(End, Battle in the Forgotten City)_

I raise my katana to finish it, but just as I bring it down, in one quick movement the shadow leaps backward, kicking the katana out of my hands. Then it charges forward, seemingly to kill me; I raised my arms to protect myself waiting for the inevitable blow, it didn't come. When I opened my eyes I saw that the shadow was gone, and the voice from earlier rang out:

_"It seems you are not ready yet, you have yet to discover your true strength."_

I walk over to my katana and picked it up, responding to the elusive voice, "What is my true strength?"

_"When the time comes you will know, until that time comes however do you still wish to continue?"_

"I said it before; I will not leave my brothers to die, I'm still going," I state defiantly.

"_Very well, good luck young hero, may your heart lead you to your destiny."_

Then a bright light overtakes me and I knew no more.

* * *

(Matts' POV)

Normally as soon as I get up I would jump out of bed and play my DS, but instead of seeing my room I found myself walking on a platform of sorts, the platform itself was a mural, and on the mural were two blades crossed together. I was confused, I started to walk around when all of a sudden I felt something tingling on my arm.

"Ow," I said.

It was a bracelet, but it looked like a key chain, like the ones at the end of the Keyblade, except it seemed to be attached to my hand and I couldn't pry it off. Then a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed me, it was trying to take me underground, I hit the hand and jumped back, when I looked down I couldn't believe my eyes:

"What the- no way, it can't be… a Heartless!"

The Heartless was smallish in size, it had no distinguishing features expect two antennas, and it was all black with bright big yellow eyes, I was in complete shock; _this is real._

Then a bright flash of light, a sword appeared in my hand.

"A-a sword," I stuttered.

The sword was a long sword that was painted mostly silver and black, the handle was all silver, as well as the hand guards, black like vines twirled around the hand guards and connected to a crystal that was colored dark blue, the blade itself was black and silver the two colors intertwining.

I took the blade and started to swing at the swarming Heartless.

"Take this, and that," I yelled.

Then one hit me in the face and made one of loose teeth come out,_ finally,_ I thought, _that tooth was a_ _stubborn one._

"Oh come on, I got sucker punched," I gasped.

Then all of a sudden a large beam of energy came down and destroyed all the Heartless, then I saw a light that flashed from my bracelet.

I looked at and I grinned, "Cool!"

Then I ran up a set of stairs that materialized when the energy beam destroyed the Heartless, when I finally made it to the top I heard a sound and I looked behind me, and saw a huge monster that appeared from behind me.

I yelled out, "A Darkside!"

I stepped back in fear of the large Heartless then a voice echoed out:

_"Young one, you have great courage, let that courage be your strength."_

Then I felt weird, I felt powerful, I stared the great monster in the eye and said in a cocky attitude:

"Come on!"

_(Play, J-E-N-O-V-A, Nobuo Uematsu)_

The Darkside lunged at me swinging a fast swipe, but I saw that one coming so I dodged it easily with my enhanced abilities, I got to my feet and ran to it, I swung my long sword hitting it in the chest, but it only got angry.

"Oh no," I groaned.

The Darkside slammed the ground creating a shock wave that knocked me of my feet, as I was getting to my feet I watched his arms, tensing up waiting up for another attack, but then I get an idea so in one quick move I jumped on the Darksides arms, and ran to the head I leaped into the air, I brought my sword on its head and cut it clean in two. I landed on the ground and looked behind me to see the Darkside topple over the edge.

_(End, J-E-N-O-V-A, Nobuo Uematsu)_

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about," I said.

Then the voice rang out again:

"_Well down, your courage will provide you with great power, may your courage provide others with the promise of tomorrow."_

Then something pulled my feet and I noticed the entire platform was gone; it was replaced with a pool of overflowing darkness and I was being covered in it, I started panic the suffocating feeling was too much, then it was pitch black once again.

When I woke up I saw the light of the sun, and someone kneeling over me.

"Hey, are you ok, hello?"

I sat up slowly and blinked my eyes, unbelieving at what I am seeing, again.

"Well, I'm glad you're ok, who are you," the person asked.

I started to speak, "Y-you, you're…"

* * *

Destiny Islands

Chapter 1

Arrival

(Marks' POV)

"Wake up, wake up!"

"Mom," I asked, but as I said that I choked, my mouth was full of water and my throat burned.

After getting rid of the burning feeling I opened my eyes to see a cute red head with short hair that was about up to her neck, she had blue eyes, she wore a white top, and a purple skirt.

"Are you all right," she asked.

"Yeah," I took a look around to see I was at a beach of sorts, "where am I?"

"Destiny Islands," she replied

I took a long look at her, then I burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter, after awhile I managed to speak.

"Yeah, right."

"Um right, this is Destiny Islands."

I froze, if what she says is true that means she is…

"Who are you," I ask tentatively.

And she replied " I'm Kairi, what's your name"

"Mark," I said automatically.

"How did you get here Mark," Kairi muses.

I start to stutter," Um-I-um-well-see…"

"Maybe Riku would know," Kairi muttered to herself.

"Riku, what about, Sor- oops," I quickly stopped talkingf but Kairi picked up the hint.

"How do you know about Sora?"

"Uhhhh," I stalled for time," lucky guess?"

Kairi made a face that was crossed between confusion and disbelief.

"Well, Mark, maybe Sora and Riku would have heard of you," she said.

"Doubt it," I muttered.

"Hm, what did you say?"

I look away from Kairi and say, "Nothing."

Then she ran ahead and I followed her.

_So I am really am in the game, should I play it like the game goes, or not?_

"Sora, Riku, hey!" Kairi called out.

"Kairi," said the two boys as they ran up to her.

"Hey," said the shorter boy with spiky hair.

He wore red zipper up shirt with a black and white vest, he had red pants with a blue belt on, and he must of been nervous because he was itching the back of his head, most people do that when they're nervous or hiding something ,I should know, I knew it right then he must have been Sora.

_No Duh,_ I thought_, even Matt and Michael would-, _

I stop there as my thoughts turn to my brothers, _hope they're ok_.

Then my attention turns to the taller boy who had long silver hair, a yellow shirt striped black and dark blue pants. He crossed his arms and looked right at Kairi.

_That's definitely Riku._

"Who's that," Sora asked. a slight frown etched on his face.

"His name is Mark, I found him in the water and well, he looked like he could use some help," she moved aside so they could see me.

"Hey," Sora smiled.

Riku stared straight at me, "… Where did you come from?"

I quickly worked my brain into overdrive, thinking of the best possible answer, and I had it:

"I forgot?"

"Shame," said Riku in a disbelieving sort of tone.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi showed me around the islands, they also introduced me to Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka, I am glad I really did not hurt them too much and it seems they did not remember me.

_Now that I think about it, were those three I fought earlier the real Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie? _

But now it was turning night and the others had to go home, but before leaving Sora turned to me.

"Say, about those clothes it looks they're either ripped, or shredded, or just plain ugly," I made a face at that and he faltered slightly," do you need some new ones, cause I might have some spare clothes, if you want them."

"Yeah, thanks," I said.

The others said they don't have a place for me to stay yet, so I went over to the treehouse that was built on the island, climbed the ladder, found a blanket and a pillow, and went straight to sleep.

_

* * *

I found myself walking on the beach heading for the boat docks, I didn't know why, I just felt like walking there. When I got to the docks I noticed that there was a small canoe already tied up, I stopped and looked around, then I saw something out in the sea, it looked like Sora. _

"_What the?"_

_Then the sun shone in my eyes, I held my hand out and squinted my eyes, but Sora had disappeared, and before I could do anything else I heard a voice:_

"_Hey Mark." _

_I turned around to see Kairi standing there behind me. _

"_Kairi, what are you doing here," I asked. _

"_To give you your breakfast." _

"_Ok thanks," I opened the bag to find a few bananas, and oranges; I heard an odd noise and when I looked up, I saw Kairi slowly inching closer to me. _

"_Um Kairi… what you doing?" _

_She still came closer to me, her face only inches from mine she leaned forward and then-_

"Hey moron, wake up already!"

* * *

I woke up from my dream to see a boy standing there leaning against the door jam looking down at me, I couldn't see his face because of the suns glare. 

"Lose something," he said, and he tossed something at my feet; a sword, the same sword I used earlier.

I was a little angry because I was having a… nice dream, so I stood up and started toward him.

"Ok you little brat I'll-," but I stopped when I saw his face.

"Michael!"

_(Play the Brothers theme, Precious things, Fire Emblem)_

Michael laughed out loud, "'Little', think again sport, I'll chop your ego down to size."

"'Chop me down to size', why you little!"

I ran over and playfully tackled my sixteen-year-old brother. After a while of wrestling, Michael pushed me off and chuckled at my playful 'hello'.

_(End the Brothers theme, Precious Things)_

"Where were you," I asked.

"By my guess… the same place you were," he paused at my confused look, "the 'dive to the heart'."

"The first level, eh, how come I didn't see you there?"

Michael shrugged," We each had to face our own trial… our own battle."

I sighed, somehow I knew he would say something dramatic like that, and then I remembered something important:

"Matt! Oh man, do you know where Matt is?"

"He's not with you," Michael glared at me, as if it was my fault I wasn't watching him.

I triedto think of something to say, but I ended up stuttering instead:

"I-I just thought- well if you're here and I'm here, I assumed…"

"Hey!"

A voice caught our attention; I saw Sora, Riku, and Kairi running over towards us. The trio of friends stopped in front of us with broad smiles on their faces.

"Hey, Mark did you sleep well," Sora asked.

I nodded and Kairi noticed Michael standing behind me:

"Mark, who's this?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Michael beat me to it:

"My name is Michael, I'm Marks older brother."

Their eyes widened slightly, but Riku recovered first:

"So you have a brother, huh," he offered his hand," I'm Riku."

"Sora."

"Kairi."

I shifted nervously," Ok sooo, what's to eat I'm starving!"

I was trying to get us both out of the hot seat, Kairi blinked for a minute and giggled.

"All right, lets get something to eat first."

"Okay sounds great but, no offense or anything, why are you three so cheery," Michael asked.

"I'll explain later," Sora dismissed, "let's say we're working on a big project, and we need all the help we can get."

Michael and I exchanged looks, for we already knew what the project was.

Then Michael stepped forward and addressed the three:

"Say, do you want our help, I mean you need all the help you can get."

Kairi clasped her hands together," Yes thank you, both of you."

I scratched my head shyly and Michael just shrugged.

Suddenly Riku slapped his head, apparently remembering something, "Oh that reminds me, I found someone else who wanted to help us."

Kairi asked, "Someone… else?"

"Yeah, I met him at my house and he really wanted to help so…"

Then a voice rang out from behind him, "Yo, how's going?"

Riku stepped aside to reveal the mysterious helper. My jaw dropped, as well as Michaels, Standing in front of us holding two even sized boards, and a cocky grin on his face… was Matt.

* * *

Well that's it for Prologue/Chapter 1. Review and comment but NO FLAMES! 


	2. Revelations and Separations

On to the reviews:

From Juggernuat:

Mark: 3 out of 5 not bad I guess, but unfortunantely for you this chapter will be kind of slow until around the end, but the chapter does offer some explanations that wern't explained in the game.

Michael: OUR version of it anyway.

Mark: Whatever.

From L.A.S.S :

Michael: Thanks, by the way you mispelled my name.

Now on to Chapter 2.

Disclaimer: We do not own anything shown here expect for characters; Michael, Mark, and Matt.

* * *

Destiny Islands

Chapter 2

Revelations and Separations

_Matts' Flashback_

" _You- you're Riku," I said._

"_How do you know my name," Riku asked, confused. _

"_Uhhhh, I heard about you," I said. _

"_Really, from who," Riku asked, even more confused. _

"_Um-well I heard it from- you see- I forget," I said, pulling every desperate move I can think of. _

"_You… forgot," stated Riku, his voice on the edge of disbelief. _

"_Uh, yeah," I said, hoping Riku would leave it be._

"_Are you serious," Riku asked again, I was really starting to get nervous. _

_I answered as simply as I can, "Yes." _

_Riku thinks for a minute, then after awhile he finally reaches a decision._

"_Look I don't know how you really know me, but I'll accept what you say is true… for now."_

_I nod and he stands up, helping me off the ground. _

_I can't believe fell for that, it will at least give me time to find Mark and Michael. _

'_Growl.'_

"_You sound hungry," said Riku. _

"_Yeah, I guess I am," I said. _

_Riku looks around, and says to me, "Where do you live I'll take you home."_

_That was a new problem; luckily I had a quick solution. _

"_I don't have one." _

_L__ie through my teeth, "I don't even know where I am."_

_Riku responds without looking at me, "Destiny Islands, but you already knew that didn't you."_

_He gives me a funny look and I just look away, he sighs and walks down a path motioning for me to follow._

"_Maybe you can come to my house, I'll get you some clothes, a place for you to rest, and something to eat," Riku offers._

"_Yeah thanks, by the way I'm Matt," I say, as I run after Riku._

_

* * *

_

_The clothes Riku gave me must of been a hand me down of his or something; it was a bright blue sleeveless shirt, a pair of blue pants, some black fingerless gloves, and black and silver tennis shoes._

"_Thanks for the clothes," I said._

"_No problem," Riku said, taking my plate of food from the table and setting it in the sink. _

_I rubbed my stomach and said, "Oh yeah, and thanks for the food." _

" _Anytime," Riku responded absentmindedly, apparently focused on washing the dishes. _

_I decided I was going to go and look around Rikus house, which I must say is pretty small, It could fit a family of three maybe four, but it would still be pretty cramped, I could almost understand why Riku would want to leave the island, almost. As I stood up I heard Riku muttering something, I distinctly heard the word 'raft' so I stop and listen in._

"_I guess the raft will have a lot of helpers if I can get that new guy to help," Riku muttered._

_It took awhile for two-and-two to add up, but I finally remembered what Riku was talking about. Then I had an idea, and it may just work._

"_Can I help," I asked. _

_Riku continued to wash the dishes, "With what?"_

"_The raft," I state._

_Riku stopped washing the dishes and stared at me._

"_How did you know about the raft," Riku asked warily._

_I chuckle at Riku for forgetting something important, "You said, it just now,"_

"_I did," Riku asked, shifting his feet while he stood there._

_I simply nod, his was face impassive as he turns back towards the dishes._

"_Oh, I guess its ok," Riku sighed, "how old are you anyway, eight?"_

_I'm pretty sure if I looked in a mirror, my face would look offended as I replied haughtily._

"_For your information Mr. Moody, I'm ten, TEN, not eight."_

_Riku held up his hands in mock surrender, "Sorry, fine you're ten, have ever done any hard labor before?"_

_I paused to think about this and I answer slowly._

"_Well, my dad used to take me and my brother to work with him, so yeah I have done some hard work before."_

_Riku nodded his head, apparently that was the answer he was looking for. He crossed over to the counter and wiped his hands on a dishrag that has seen better days, then he turned back to me and told me the details._

"_We start working tomorrow, the raft is not on this island but on the one next to it, so we will need to take a boat to get there."_

_I nodded and Riku told me to get to bed so I could wake up early the next morning. _

_As I was walking up I turned back to him and asked._

"_Oh, do you happen to know two boys, named Michael and Mark," I asked._

_Riku leaned in toward the kitchen door and gave me a look._

"_Why do you know them or something," Riku asked._

_I thought about saying how I knew Michael and Mark, but I decided against it._

"_Yeah I know them, have you seen them?" _

_Riku frowned and told me, "I do know a Mark, he appeared on the island just today. I don't know if this is the same Mark you know or someone else, but yes I have seen him, but I don't know about a boy named Michael, sorry."_

"_Ok," I whispered to myself, and I went to bed. _

_

* * *

_

_The next morning Riku and I rushed outside and to the town pier, Riku started to untie his boat by the time I caught up to him, he waved over to me to hurry up._

"_Come on Matt, get in," said Riku sitting in a rowboat. _

"_Ok," and sat I down across from him._

_Riku picked up the two oars and started to paddle to the island, it didn't take us too long since the island wasn't that far from the town. Upon arrival Riku and I stepped out of the boat and tied it to the pier, when I turned around my eyes widened, there on the beach was Sora and Kairi waving at Riku, he waved back and turned to me. _

"_You wanted to help right," I nodded, and he pointed towards to even sized boards lying by the pier, "take those two boards and carry them over there."_

_Riku ran off to talk to the other two and I picked up the two logs and started to lug them across the beach, about halfway through the beach I notice Sora, Kairi, and Riku talking to some people, then Kairi giggled and Riku caught my attention and suddenly slapped his face._

"_Oh that reminds me, I found someone else who wanted to help us."_

_Then I heard Kairi say, "Someone else?"_

"_Yeah," Riku said excited now, "I met him at my house and he really wanted to help so…"_

_I wasn't that enthusiastic about working on the boat, was I?_

_Then Riku stepped aside and when I looked ahead, I almost fell to the ground, standing there wide-eyed and jaw-dropped was my two older brothers. _

_I couldn't think of anything else to say except, "Yo how's it going?" _

* * *

_Michaels' Flashback_

_I remember the first thing I thought when I landed on the islands: Holy crap there's sand in my mouth!_

_Well, actually I meant the second thought in my head: I have to find Mark and Matt, yeah something a little closer to that._

_I lifted my head up and spat the sand out, even though I still couldn't believe where I was, I recognized the place; it was the secret spot, you know that cave where Sora and Kairi drew stuff on the cavern walls._

_I looked over at the wall and sure enough; all sorts of etchings were carved onto the rocky cavern and in the corner there was the portraits that Sora and Kairi drew of each other. Staring right at it I can't help but to smile, then I notice that the paupu fruit wasn't drawn yet, that means that today is probably the day before Sora came here and carved the star shaped fruit._

_Looking straight up in the sky I see the moon staring right back at me, that meant it was probably late evening, but this was no time to sleep I scanned the sandy ground and noticed my katana lying a few feet from where I woke up. When I bent down to pick it up right next to it was a scabbard to hold the blade in, I picked it up and swung it around my shoulder, sheathed the sword, and stepped out of the cave to start my search._

_

* * *

_

"_I searched this whole night and all I found was this damn sword!" _

_I looked at the stout sword I found by the beach, the only thing unique about it was that it had a gold and blue handle, but basically it was nothing really special._

_The sun started to rise and I was getting tired, I was heading toward the cave to get some rest when I remembered there was one place I hadn't checked: the treehouse that was right next to the cave. I changed direction midway and walked up the path when I heard a voice:_

"_Kairi, what are you doing?"_

_I froze, did the people of Kingdom Hearts add something I wasn't aware of? I slowly continued up the ladder and edged my head over the door jam, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was, and it wasn't._

_Instead of finding Kairi kissing Sora I found my little brother making kissing noises in his sleep, I stared in bewilderment, not at the fact that I found my brother intact and in one piece; BUT THE FACT THAT KISSING KAIRI WAS EVEN IN HIS HEAD!_

"_I'm going to have so much fun with this," I say to myself, before opening my mouth and rudely awaking him from his pleasant dream._

_End of flashbacks_

* * *

Now

Michaels POV

I saw and yet I couldn't believe it, standing in front of us was holding two logs was our DS playing, video game manic, younger brother; Matt Fri.

_(Play the Brothers theme, Precious Things)_

"Matt!"

Mark ran in and tackled Matt, who dropped the two logs he was carrying and with a cry, he fell on his back.

I sighed knowing that Mark had a tendency of rough 'hellos'.

I walked over, gently pried Mark off Matt, pulled him off the ground and addressed him with a softer hug.

"Do… you three know each other," Sora asked.

"Yep," Mark said cheerfully," we're brothers!"

"Another one," Riku said shocked by this scene, " how many are there?"

I stepped up and chuckled," On this island… just us."

For a moment I thought Riku went slightly pale at the thought of more of the Fri family on the island, so I decided not to tell him about the other two siblings just to save him from fainting.

_(End Brothers theme, Precious Things)_

"So, are we going to stand here or are we going to get to work," I said, breaking the long silence.

Kairi nodded and she gave us jobs for the day, we spilt into pairs; Kairi and Matt would look for spare clothes, get bags to store stuff in them and so forth. Riku and Mark would start to build the raft, nail in boards, tie them up, set the sail and basic handyman work. Sora and I agreed to find a sail, a few more logs, and some rope.

When Sora and I found everything on our list we decided to rendezvous with the others at the part of the island where the raft was being built, when the two of us arrived we found Riku and Mark hard at work, putting the mast in the raft. The two boys lifted the log and quickly but precisely set the mast on the raft, brushing sawdust of their pants and wiping the sweat of their foreheads, they leaned against the newly set mast, grinning when they noticed us coming back with the supplies.

The sun was starting to set by the time we set the sail, the rope, and the extra logs on the raft. Soon Kairi and Matt came back with a bunch of boxes in hand; Riku and I rushed over and lightened their load. For a moment I thought a look of jealousy flashed on Soras face, but he covered it up quickly.

"Hey guys, it's getting late why don't we stop for now," Sora suggested.

However Riku protested, "But, there's still so much to do, we still need food, water, a rudder and-"

"Riku, we can get all that done… tomorrow," I said.

Riku opened and closed his mouth a few times, finally he shrugged his shoulders in defeat and walked off, the rest of us followed him shortly.

* * *

There we were, the six of us sitting on a small circular island staring at the sunset, and then Sora starts to speak: 

"So, Kairis' home is out there somewhere, right?"

"Maybe," Riku says, " we'll never know by staying here."

"But, how far can a raft take us," Sora asks, leaning forward to look at Riku, who leaned back against the tree.

Riku pauses and says, "I don't know, if we have to we'll think of something else."

"So suppose you find another world," Kairi giggles a little, " what would you do there?"

This caught Riku off guard, "Hmm, well I-I haven't really thought about it."

Riku looks up at the sunset, "It's just that, I always wondered why we're here on this island, if there other worlds then why did we end up on this one, and suppose there are other worlds, then ours is just another piece of something much bigger, right?"

Sora lies back on the branch, "I don't know."

_Sora is defiantly not the scholar type,_ I thought.

I heard Mark chuckle quietly was he thinking the same thing I was, or was it because he remembered this scene in the game.

I was so distracted I almost missed the rest of the conversation, "- a lot lately have you?"

"Thanks to you," Riku steps forward, " and you three as well."

Matt responded with a 'huh,' I felt Mark jump slightly at that, even I was a little startled at this and I turned to him:

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm, I don't understand it myself," Riku confesses, " It's just a feeling I get from you three."

"Anyway," Riku turns back to us, "If you four hadn't come here, I wouldn't even be thinking about this, Kairi, Michael, Mark, Matt: thanks."

Kairi smiles," your welcome."

Matt gives a big yawn and Mark suggests that we head back to the town, and they agreed so we started down the bridge when Riku calls out to Sora, he turns around and something lands in his hands.

"You wanted one, didn't you," Riku said.

Sora looked at the star shaped fruit in his hands, " A Paupu fruit?"

As Riku walks by he simply says," If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined, they will remain a part of each others lives, no matter what."

Sora suddenly looked mortified as Riku concluded with: "Come on I know you want to try it."

As Sora tries to explain to a laughing Riku, I turn to Mark.

"Well Mark, should I prepare one for you," I say with a sly knowing smile.

"W-what are you talking about," Mark replies nervously.

I walked a little far ahead and turned to him with an evil grin, and say in my best Mark impersonation: "Kairi, what are doing?"

It was Marks turn to look mortified as I started to make kissing sounds like he did in his dream, Mark looked around hastily to make sure there were no other witnesses.

"I-I don't know what you mean," Mark said, obviously lying.

"Oh really, so how far did you two get," I taunted.

"What! No farther than a kiss- wait, I meant-NO," Mark covered his face within his hands.

When I looked at Matt he had a very similar face that Sora and Mark had earlier, and I decided Mark had enough humiliation.

"Hey it's ok, even I'll admit that she's cute," I reassured, Mark looked up, his face impassive.

Then I added sternly, "But… don't get in the way between her and Sora, that is the only thing I'll say about it."

Mark looked intensely relived and said, "Of course this was just a one time thing, I wouldn't get the way of them," he saw my hesitation and added, "those two are great for each other."

I simply nodded and started down the door, but halfway through it I turn back to Mark.

"Hey Mark."

He turns to me, I smile, and make more kissing sounds, Marks face was priceless, and then he ran after me yelling at me and stuff, Matt followed shortly after that.

* * *

Matts' POV

After Michael had finished teasing Mark and when we arrived at the town, we all just realized we had nowhere to stay. Sure Riku let me stay with him last night, but his wasn't big enough to hold any more guests. We could of stayed with Kairi, but she lived with the mayor and he might ask some pretty tough questions, and the last thing we wanted was to draw too much attention, so when Sora offered a place for us to stay we immediately agreed, and I woke up to the sound of Mark and Sora talking to each other.

"Thanks a million for letting us stay with you Sora," Mark said.

"Ah, it's no problem," Sora shrugged.

"Alright Mark stop thanking him, you thanked twenty times already, so SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND LET ME GET SOME DAMN SHUTEYE," Michael bellowed.

"Ok, I actually I slept through the 'twenty times', and stop cursing," I added.

"Who asked you," Michael retorted.

I just groaned and laid my head on my pillow and fell straight to sleep.

* * *

That morning I woke up to find that I was the only one in the bedroom; I got out of the sleeping bag and trudged downstairs to find Sora at the breakfast table, he noticed me and said: 

"I told my mom that Riku and Kairi were coming and she made some extra food, she left a little while ago so she wouldn't know that they are actually NOT really coming, so eat up."

I sat at the table and dug in at the plate of food in front of me, and noticed that Mark and Michael weren't here.

"Where's stupid and Mr. Vulgar," I ask, food stuffed between my lips.

Sora shuddered when he looked at me, _was there something on my face, _I thought as stuffed more food in my mouth.

"Umm, M-mark is getting changed in the (-dear god how much can that kid stuff in his big-) bathroom and Michael is buying some (- wait, is he eating his-) clothes at the market," Sora choked.

I let out a big belch and Sora left the table and to the sink for a glass of water. Soon Mark stepped in the kitchen; he was wearing a white zip-up jacket that he left unzipped, the collar sticking straight up so that it partially covered his neck, under the jacket was a simple red t-shirt, long white pants that had two black lines running up the side.

Mark stepped in and said, "What is that smell?"

I jutted my thumb at myself and Mark went to the sink to get a glass of water, which he gulped down rather quickly. After I finished my breakfast, and Mark and Sora had theirs (in a different room I might add, wonder why), we made our way through the town to the pier. Just when we made it to the pier we heard someone calling us, we turned around and Michael was running up to us wearing an undershirt, some brown pants that hung off his legs, and his shoes were a mix between sandals and boots; the top and straps were open like a sandal, but it covered his shins with a brown material very much like a pair of boots.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late, are we ready to go," Michael asked, a little out of breath.

Sora replied, "Yep, Riku and Kairi are already there so lets go!"

* * *

"The usual again? Alright I'll referee." 

A voice caused my head to look over to where Sora and Riku were standing, Michael and Mark noticed it as well and we all went to find out what's happening, although I had a feeling I knew what it was.

I walked over to Kairi and gestured towards Sora and Riku, "What are they doing?"

Kairi responded as the two boys started to run down the ruined path, "We're deciding who gets to name the boat either Highwind or Excalibur …"

She paused and added with a giggle," and, who gets to share a paupu with me!"

"WHAAAAT," Mark yelped, and turned toward Michael, who was a little surprised as well.

It's not we didn't expect this, it's just that we didn't know that Kairi knew about the boys other bet, but that also raised a question; who did Kairi want to win?

Apparently Michael decides to voice our thoughts, " So Kairi, who do you want to win?"

Kairi doesn't respond, instead she stares at the small cliff waiting for one of the boys to appear, and she yelled out and pointed over to the watchtower.

"Here they come," Kairi cried out.

"Who's winning," Mark asked.

"It's… Sora," Michael announced.

Kairis face has never been brighter; her face lit up in joy and she barely could contain her glee… until-

"Wait… or is Riku," Michael says confused.

Kairis face fell, she was still kind of happy, but you could tell the idea of Riku winning wasn't something she wanted so much.

Then I looked over and said, " I can't even tell!"

It was true, both boys were neck-to-neck and it looked like neither one was gaining a lead, and it stayed that way when they crossed the finish line.

Sora turned to us and said with a frown, "Um, who won?"

Then Michael voiced his opinion, "Well since it's a tie, maybe Riku should name the boat and Sora should-"

"What, get to share the paupu fruit with Kairi, you actually took that seriously," Riku laughed.

Then I remembered something about the bet, and apparently so did my brothers because Mark hid his face, and Michaels' eyes sparked in remembrance.

"It was just a joke, you should have seen your faces," Riku concluded.

An awkward silence hung through the air, nobody said anything except for Riku who was laughing in a corner, but that doesn't count. I was so tempted to let Riku have it for playing that little prank, didn't he knew that he was toying with Sora and Kairis emotions?

"Maybe we should get back to work on the boat," I said trying to break the silence, " I mean we're leaving tomorrow remember?"

Everyone nods and Sora goes off to find food for the voyage, Mark, Michael, and I just watch as Kairi and Riku get back to work, a scowl on our faces.

"Why the hell did Riku do that," Michael asks to no one in particular.

"Now normally I wouldn't want you cursing, but this time I agree," I nodded, still scowling at the silver haired boy.

"I don't know, maybe we shouldn't get involved, I mean it is a love triangle between those three," Mark says crossing his arms," No sense in adding another in that number right?"

Michael looks at Mark and says, "Then why are you still here?"

Mark made a face between confusion and curiosity, I just shook my head muttering 'not this again', Mark looked at me and back to Michael, and his face was just like last night, he yelled at a smirking Michael:

"WHY DO YOU KEEP TORTURING ME?!"

* * *

I don't know how I got here, or more importantly why I lingered, but I did. You see, I dropped my flask of water and it washed up under the dock, I made my way to the pier and I noticed Sora and Kairi sitting on the pier, alone. I decided to leave them be, so I moved quietly under the pier and looked around for the flask, when I found it I reached over and tried to grab it, only to find out it was stuck between two posts, then I heard two voices from above me: 

"You know, Riku has changed," it sounded like Kairi.

There was a small noise like a grunt, it came from who I would believe is Sora.

Now I probably should have left right there, Michael and Mark always scold me for eavesdropping on other people, especially on them, but it is not exactly like I had a choice… much.

"Hey Sora, lets take the raft and go, just the two of us," Kairi suggested.

"Huh," Sora responded.

Kairi laughed, "Just kidding!"

Soon they were both laughing and I was just confused altogether.

"What's gotten into you, you're the one who's changed Kairi," Sora said, half laughing.

That did not earn another laugh instead she responded more sadly, "Maybe."

There was a small silence until Kairi spoke once again, "You know, I was a little scared at first about leaving the island, but now I know I could always come home, right?"

"Right," Sora says cheerfully.

I finally got the flask, but I decided to stay and hear the rest.

"Sora, don't ever change," Kairi says, standing up.

That earned another 'huh' from Sora, I peered over the edge of the pier and saw the two of them standing there.

"I just can't wait once we set sail, it'll be great," Kairi says, staring at the setting sun as Riku did the other night.

Then a pair of hands seized my shoulders and pulled me out from under the pier, when I looked over I cringed cause I knew what was coming.

"Now what did we tell you about eavesdropping," Michael said in a scolding tone.

"Geez Matt, I thought you broke that habit of yours," Mark said in an annoyed tone.

"Well, ok, I was eavesdropping- no I mean, there was two seashells and I- no that doesn't sound right," I stammered, the two of them stared at me with a 'try again' look, so I did:

"Ok there was two crabs- ok two crabs, and they- oh all right, I was eavesdropping, ok," I said obviously defeated.

Sora and Kairi noticed us, and they looked embarrassed when they I heard was eavesdropping, then after awhile Sora cleared his throat and suggested that they head home, so I rushed ahead desperately trying to get away from my two angry brothers.

* * *

Marks POV

I was uneasy the whole night, I felt I should know what's coming, but with all of todays' activity and Matt eavesdropping on Sora and Kairi, any indication of what should happen later was temporarily nulled.

I felt stiff and I believe everyone else was too, well maybe on the exception of Matt who was jumping on Soras bed, we were all in our bed/sleeping bags just trying to get what little rest we were allowed, when we looked outside and noticed storm clouds growing in the distance.

"A storm," Matt asked confused.

"Oh no, the raft," Sora yelled, sitting upright on his bed.

"We have to get to the island," Michael said, grabbing his katana.

I grabbed my Gladiators sword and Matt grabbed his long sword, by then Sora started climbing out of the window, with me close behind him. After Michael helped Matt down we sped down to the pier and we paddled the boats towards the island in a hurry, when we arrived I noticed something odd, and apparently so did Sora:

"Rikus boat, and Kairis!"

We felt it before we saw it, etching from the dark corners of the island, smallish in body, but still lethal.

"Heartless," I said quietly.

I drew my Gladiators sword and faced the Heartless.

"Hey Michael, that katana of yours sharpened enough," I asked.

Michael answered while running towards the Heartless, "Let's find out!"

He ran forward slicing the first Heartless that charged at us, Matt and I rushed forward hitting the two Heartless that appeared from behind Michael, Sora ran up to help, but I stopped him:

"Find Kairi and Riku we'll handle them, go," I yelled.

Sora nodded, and ran off towards the shack that lead to the circular island while Michael, Matt, and I warded off the rapidly growing Heartless, I sliced one on my left and Matt got one that leapt at him. Michael swung his sword in a series of wide strikes slaying any Heartless that was in his way, he jumped to the beach and yelled for us to follow him, we leapt after him, the Heartless trailing behind us as we made our way to the beach. A few Heartless appeared before us and charged at me, I sliced one that tried to claw me, I spun stabbing one behind me, and beheaded the third one that attacked. Michael jumped sliced one and turned it into a spin attack, slaying a bunch of Heartless around him, one clawed him in the shoulder so he spun around and cleaved it in two when it landed.

Matt did a lot of leap-like attacks that killed the Heartless coming out of the ground; three Heartless however escaped his attacks and came from behind him, Matt spun around and jumped backwards causing the Heartless to stumble, Matt took the opportunity and took out all three in one swipe.

But it didn't help, there were too many Heartless and soon we were all surrounded. The three of us stood back-to-back, surrounded by a sea of Heartless, when I looked over at the island I saw Sora and Riku being covered in darkness, but I didn't wait to find out what happened, the Heartless started to close in.

"I'm not giving up, you two," Michael asks, looking at us.

" Give up? I'm just getting started," Matt yells, staying in a battle stance.

"You know I'm not giving up, but these swords aren't powerful enough," I confess, looking at my gladiators' sword.

Then they jump, all of them, every single one leaping at us, Matt swings his sword at them, Michael raises his up to block the attacks, and I just wait for them to come closer.

_"It is time."_

The moment the voice spoke a bright light shone behind all three of us, the Heartless dissipated under the bright lights intensity and we all covered our eyes as well. When we opened our eyes our weapons were floating in the air, covered in a veil of light, and then it happened; our weapons were transforming:

My blade elongated and turned dark blue, the hand guard stretched and circled until it reached the end of the handle, ending up in the shape of a heart, at the end of the blade was a sharp point like any other blade, but maybe a bit bigger.

Michaels' blades color stayed the same, the blade was still blood red and metallic silver, the size of the sword grew larger and curved a little more, the back bit at the edge of the sword spread out in two sharp points, the hilt elongated and circled halfway down and stopped.

Matts' sword was the one that changed dramatically, the long sword changed shape completely, the blade was a cross between Oathkeeper and Spellbinder, the blade was split like Oathkeeper, but the end was curved like Spellbinder, if you take the hand guard of the Kingdom Key and reversed it so that the end was at the top and the top was at the bottom, you would have the hilt of Matts blade.

But all of the blades had one thing in common; they all had key chains at the end.

"K-keyblades," Michael yelled out.

I just couldn't speak, I was shocked beyond belief, _Keyblades? We aren't supposed to have Keyblades!_

I looked in the direction of the island and saw Sora battling Heartless with his Keyblade, however when my gaze stayed towards the cave I remembered something.

"Guys, do remember what happens next?"

They looked at me, but before they could answer more Heartless popped up, I took them out in an instant, then I turned and ran at the secret place yelling, "I think we can save Kairi from losing her heart!"

The others nodded and we ran for the secret area, Matt opened the doors and we hurried inside, we ran through the tunnel, rounded the corner and saw Kairi standing there, fearing we were too late I called her name: "Kairi!"

She turned around her face etched with fear, "Matt, Mark, Michael, what's going on, where's Sora and Riku?"

But before anyone could respond someone emerged from behind Kairi, someone in a full brown cloak a weapon in his hands; the Keyblade of darkness, it looked like the Kingdom Key, except the handle was circular instead of triangular-like and it was black and red, before anyone could yell out the person stabbed Kairi in the heart. Her face was full of shock, a faint smile appeared on her face, and then she fell over her body fading away.

"NO, YOU MONSTER," I yelled, my voice filled with sadness and fury.

"I'LL KILL YOU MURDER," Michael roared. his voice shaking in rage.

"I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT," Matt bellowed.

Then the man disappeared in the shadows and Sora came, Keyblade in hand.

"Guys where 's- KAIRI," Sora yelled.

I turned around to find Kairi standing there, perfectly ok, but when she turned towards us my heart fell, she had the same blank look from the game.

"So-ra."

Then the door behind her burst open and Michael, Matt, and I was pushed out instantly, I tumbled head over heels until my head collided with something hard and I fell unconscious.

* * *

There was a dull rumbling in my head, was I dreaming? When I opened my eyes I suddenly wished I was, I stood on a piece of the island that was floating in the air, next to me Sora and Matt were helping me up, and what I saw made me feel like I was going to pass out again: a Darkside Heartless towered a few feet ahead of me and Michael was fighting it. He dodged the swinging arms and struck them as they passed. 

Sora took something out of his jacket and told me to drink it: a potion. The potion tasted sweet at first, but then as I swallowed it, it left a burning feeling in my throat. But the potions effects healed me up to the point where I could at least stand, and then I heard Michael yelling at us:

" Do you guys mind speeding it up, I'm only battling a giant monster here!"

"Right," I said, as my Keyblade materialized in my hand.

"Hey, how do you guys have the same sword I have," Sora asked confused.

"Later ok," Matt yelled, holding his hand out.

There was a bracelet on his hand I had not noticed before, it glowed for a second then a bolt of lighting came down and struck the Heartless in the chest, and it staggered backwards.

"How did you do THAT," I ask, shocked that Matt already knew magic.

Matt looked at his bracelet and looked at me and said, "I… guessed?"

Then Michael flew past us and landed on the ground, apparently the thunder spell wasn't enough, so Matt ran towards Michael, and Sora and I charged towards the Darkside… only to get swatted away in five seconds.

Ok, this will be harder than I thought, never thought a Darkside would be this big, then again I never expected the world of Kingdom Hearts to be REAL.

Then Sora yelled out, "I have a plan, but I need you three to distract it!"

"Got it," I agreed.

"Sounds a lot better than dying," Michael nodded.

Matt responded by casting another Thunder spell on the Darkside this time hitting its hand, it recoiled and clutched its hand in pain. Sora, Michael, and I ran up to the Heartless while it was distracted; I jumped up and hit its lower stomach, when it doubled over Michael sliced its knee forcing it to lay on the other knee, it didn't expect this it was surprised by our team effort. Then Sora jumped up in the air, raising his Keyblade and bringing it on the Darksides head, the Darkside fell over backwards and slowly floated upwards into the black sphere above us.

"Everyone hold on to something," Sora yelled, grabbing on wood plank that was stuck in the ground.

We all grabbed the wood plank and held on tightly, but Soras grip slipped and he was being launched upwards.

"Sora!" Michael yelled, grabbing Sora and he slipped too.

"Michael!" I yelled grabbing, onto Michael and I slipped too.

"Mar- ouch!" Matt yelled, as he grabbed my hand and was being pulled by the force of all three of us.

But Matt couldn't hold on any longer, and we started to realize it too and that would not be good.

"Don't let go," Sora yelled.

But Matt had already let go, "TOO LATE!"

We all spun upwards and into the ball of eternal abyss above us.

* * *

Review and comment but no flames. 


	3. Comrades

Disclaimer: We don't own anything shown here except Michael, Mark, and Matt.

We're sorry it took so long to update Keys of Destiny, with Michael and I working on our own individual projects it got hard to work on chapter 3. Hopefully the next one won't take so long.

Chapter 3 by:

Michael Fri,

Mark Fri,

and Matt Fri.

Edited by: Michael Fri.

* * *

Traverse Town

Chapter 3

Comrades

"What a dream…" I heard someone say in my sleep, and then I heard a 'thump', and the voice spoke again.

"This isn't dream… MARK!"

Then I felt a hand shake me awake, "What the?"

I opened my eyes to see a brown haired boy shaking me.

"So-ra?"

"Come on get up," Sora said, pulling me to my feet, "Where are we?"

"I don't know, I just got here myself," I said.

"Come on," Sora ran forward.

We came out of the alley to see a town, it looked to be the town square, there was a restaurant built into the side of the building where you could sit down and eat.

Then Sora spoke up, "This is totally weird, are we in another world?"

"Yeah… I think we are," I replied.

I turned around to see Sora going inside a shop marked 'Accessories'.

* * *

"Hey, how can I … aw it's just some kids" said the man with blond hair sticking up, he had a goatee, a white T-shirt, a belt that looked like it could hold tools, and a pair of blue pants, he must have been Cid.

"I'm not a kid and the name is Sora," said Sora, a little annoyed at being called a kid.

Ok, ok, simmer down," Cid said, trying to calm Sora down, "so why the long faces… you two lost or something?"

"No," we both said.

"…Well maybe, where are we," Sora admitted and I groaned, _no sense of pride_.

"Huh, 'where are we," Cid chuckled, "this is Traverse town."

"So gramps is this another world," asked Sora and I slapped my face, _Sora you dimwit!_

"Don't call me gramps, the name is Cid… anyway, not sure what you're talking about, but this sure isn't your island."

"Hmm… guess we better start looking for Riku and Kairi," Sora decided.

"Don't forget Matt and Michael," I added, and he nodded.

"Well good luck with whatever it is you're doing, if you run into trouble you come to me, I'll look after for you," Cid said.

But as we turned are backs, Cid let out a yell:

"Hold on you, blondie!

_Great I'm identified by my hair color._

"Where did you get that blade," Cid asked.

"Huh?"

I craned my head to see my Keyblade was strapped to my back.

"That's just a Key-", Sora began, but I covered his mouth quickly.

"Well nice to meet you Cid but we, well, have to be going now," I said as I threw Sora out of door, and I went out with him.

"What was that for," Sora yelled at my face.

"Shh," I said as I pulled him down, and put my ear to the door.

"That boy… yep… there is no doubt that he is the Keyblade Master… well, they just ran out the door… then hurry up Leon," as he said I started to panic, Leon coming, plus, sword, plus, pain, equals, um… well nothing, but the point is that the last thing I going to do is battle Leon.

"We have to get out of here," I said as I grabbed Sora by the shirt collar, and pulled him away from the store.

I was going to the second district, and on the way there Sora kept stumbling because of me pulling his shirt collar.

"Hey, where are we heading," Sora asked while trying to walk without falling on his head.

"Away," I replied simply.

Then Sora yanked himself away from me.

"Fine, what is so bad that you have to yank me by my shirt?"

"You'll know it when you see it," I said, very fast and I ran for it.

* * *

We opened the creepy old door to the second district and stepped inside.

"Wow, it is banned," Sora said.

"Spooky," I mutter.

"What, are you afraid that ghouls and monsters are going to come out," Sora joked.

"Oh you got me," I replied joking back.

Sora started laughing… until.

"HELP ME!"

"Oh god," Sora jumped.

I summoned my Keyblade and so did Sora.

"Come on," I said, and we both ran at the where we heard the yell to see a man with Heartless all around him.

"Help me, please god, please help," the man begged.

"Don't worry your prayers have been answered," I said as I ran up to him.

_(Play, 'There and back again', DAUGHTY)_

"It's those creatures from the islands," Sora rushed forward in anger slashing one, dodged an attack from one and then sliced it.

I chuckled, ran to one that was going for the man and cut right through it, kicked another, and killed one after another. Sora slid under me, flipped and killed another one that leaped in the air, but they were starting to close in, Sora and I backed them up to keep the man safe but it was just too hard. I grabbed Sora and threw him out of all of the Heartless, I tried to get the man, but there were too many Heartless and they jumped on him.

One shoved his hand in his heart and pulled it out, and then the heart floated for awhile, and then in transformed into a black orb, when it cleared up, it became a Soldier type Heartless. It ran to me and tackled me, I was hit badly and I landed into the wall, Sora rushed at it he was holding the Heartless back, but it wouldn't last for long.

_I don't remember them being that tough, _I thought as I ran at it.

I swung my Keyblade, scratching it as it jumped back, then Sora jumped up and swung it down cutting it two.

_(End there and back again) _

"That was that man," said Sora, as he gasped for air.

"Y- yeah it was," I said, as I did the same.

Then I heard footsteps echo through the ally, and when I saw the silhouette of the person reflecting on the wall I panicked.

"Oh god… RUN!"

I got up and ran, but Sora and I actually ran right into it instead of running away from it.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere," the man said.

"Who are you," Sora asked.

"And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade," he continued, "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"

"Hey, what that supposed to mean," Sora yelled, clearly his pride was ruined.

But something wasn't right, it didn't seem like he was talking to Sora, it was like he was talking to… me.

Then I remembered the phone call Cid made and it clicked, he was talking to me.

"Never mind, now let's see that Keyblade," he said as he pointed at me.

"Um, err, no way," I said stammering.

Leon then smirked and drew his Gunblade; Revolver.

"Find then, have it your way," Leon said as he ran at me.

Sora jumped in the way and stopped him with his Keyblade.

"What! Another one," Leon yelled in a surprised voice, while kicking Sora in the gut.

"Come on, it is time to run," I said as Sora and I ran as fast as we could.

The Leon held his hand up and yelled, "Fire!"

"Move," I yelled as we ran around a corner.

The Fire spell hit the wall, the bricks broke above us, and now we were running scared.

"What do we do," Sora asked me.

"I think, we should fight him," I said reluctantly.

Sora protested, "No!"

But unfortunately the time for debating ran out.

"Fire!"

This time it hit me in the back and I fell off into a fountain, my back burned so badly, but it felt slightly better in the water.

_Wait, fountain? Oh, this is the place where you fight Opposite Armor._

"Mark," Sora yelled.

"Give it up," said Leon as he walked to Sora.

"Never," Sora yelled as he ran to Leon.

Sora slashed, but Leon blocked it while it came down, then Sora jumped on his sword and swung the Keyblade, the blunt end hit Leon in the face.

Leon flipped back, then ran at Sora and attacked, but Sora was dodging the strikes easily, then Leon grabbed Sora by the hair and threw him into the wall, Leon moved up to Sora.

Then a voice started to talk in my head.

_Stop him; prove to me why I picked you._

As I got up I felt something heal my wounds, so I turned to Leon.

"Hey Leon," I yelled as I ran up to him, and I knocked him onto a house roof.

"You don't give up," Leon said, getting into a battle position.

_(Play Marks theme, 'Numb', Linkin Park)_

"Not ever," I said, as I ran to him and swung my sword.

He blocked my first strike, but was hit by my other strike, he flipped back he pointed Revolver at me and fired, but I ran at him blocking his gunshots with my Keyblade and then we blade locked, he faked a strike and then kicked me hard off the roof. I landed on my feet looking for him then I was kicked in the nose, I got mad, I never felt so angry before in my life, I don't know what happened, but I felt my eyes roll up to the back of my head so that it was only the whites was showing.

The whole place turned pitch black, then I found myself standing on a post that materialized from nowhere, I threw up my Keyblade into the darkness, then a beam of light shone down after that, right behind me was a heart shaped moon.

"You want to give up, TOO BAD, DEEP DIVE" I yelled as the moon sent a glowing light down at Leon.

Then everything was exploding around him, he opened his eyes to see me in front of him, I started hitting him savagely and relentlessly, then the darkness faded and my eyes went back to normal.

I panted, "There you- you-"

Then I fell down and I blacked out.

_(End Marks theme)_

* * *

My head never ached so much in my life, then again I felt stuff that I have never have before so it wasn't that big of a deal… except for the pain, it was still bad.

But I did hear Leon talking to someone though:

"Where's Yuffie, she should be here by now," he paused then continued, "Aerith go find the others… but be careful."

Aerith exited the room, what I thought to go find Donald and Goofy. Leon turned and saw me sitting up.

"You're awake," he said while bringing me a glass of water, I gulped it down immediately.

"Thanks a lot," I said.

"How did you get the Keyblade," Leon asked.

"Um, err, you see, it just came to me," I said, not really knowing what else to say.

"It picked you to be its master… I see," Leon muttered.

Then I smelled something cooking and turned to Leon.

"Uh, what is that smell," I asked.

"Your breakfast," Leon replied.

And at that word I was up from my bed, ran right past Leon and to the table where I ate some bacon, some type of Japanese food, but it was good, top it off with pancakes and milk and it was a good breakfast. Then I heard Sora groan and lift his head up, I moved to him with a lot of pancakes on my plate and me shoveling one down.

"Yo, wake up you lazy bum … you ok," I asked.

"I guess," Sora said, staring at me strangely.

But then I remember this part, and I remember who Sora thought I was, and I almost upchucked my breakfast.

_I can't believe he thinks I'm Kairi, this is so wrong! _

"Okaaaaay… well, breakfast is on the table, eat up and then we can look for the others," I said hoping Sora would snap out of it quickly, but Sora just looked at me with the same look he gives Kairi, and I think; _where's that bucket from earlier?_

"I'm so glad you're ok, Kairi."

"Dude, I'm a dude" I said offended, and slapped him on the head, "It's me, Mark!"

I was mad at myself for not getting out of there in time, but it was a little funny.

"Huh… Mark, we're alive," Sora yelled, then he stopped and smelled the air, "Hey, what is that smell?"

"Your breakfast," I said, but after I told him that, Sora did the same thing that I did and ran for the table.

So while Sora ate his breakfast, I took a warm shower, and I had time to have to get my clothes cleaned as well. Leon came in and Sora started to yell at him.

"Why did you attack us," Sora asked angrily.

"I had to get the Keyblades away from you two to shake off those creatures, it turns out that's how they were tracking you," Leon paused, "it was the only way to conceal your heart from them, but it won't work for long, still I can't believe that you two of all people are the chosen ones, well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

"Why don't you start making some sense, what's going on here?"

"The creatures are called the Heartless," Leon said.

"The Heartless," Sora asked confused.

"The ones that attacked your islands," I said clarifying to him.

"Those without hearts" Leon continued, "The darkness in people hearts; that's what attracts them."

" And there is darkness in everyone's heart, even mine," I muttered to myself as I remember last night when I got angry, I felt like there was a demon being unleashed inside me and it felt … good.

"And that blade is called the Keyblade, or known as the key."

"So… this is the key," Sora asked

"Yes, Sora this is the Keyblade," I said with a chuckle.

"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade, that's why they'll keep coming after you no matter what," Leon said, as if being hunted down was the least of our problems.

"Well, we did not ask for this, right Mark," Sora said.

"Um, well sure, but the Keyblade chooses it master right," I clarified, "and well, it chose us."

"Yeah, so tough luck," Leon said, as he leaned on the door to the red room.

"How did all this happen, I remember being in my room … wait a minute, what happened to my home, my island, Riku, Kairi, Matt, Michael," Sora yelled.

"You know what, I really don't know," Leon answered.

Sora went and sat at the table, and then Leon came up to me.

"I've been wanting to ask you about when we fought earlier; how do you do that move back there," Leon asked.

"That move from last night … I don't know," I confessed.

"Hmm," Leon frowned.

But after that Leon left to talk to Sora and at that point I zoned out.

Then I felt my breath turn cold, I looked up to see a floating black orb appear, and out came a Soldier Heartless.

"Oh man, Sora you ready," Leon asked as he pointed Revolver and shot it, sending it out of the window.

Leon ran towards the red room and opened it with a bang, a small almost inaudible groan followed.

Leon yelled into the room, "Aerith, take the boy and run, the Heartless are here, we'll hold them off!"

_Boy?_

But before I could ask about the boy, Leon practically dragged away from the room, and I had no choice but to follow. I leaped off the balcony and landed in the middle of a swarm of Heartless.

All I could say was, "Oh."

"Mark, look out," Sora yelled looking at me.

"Easy Sora, I got em."

Then a figure holding a sword jumped out in the air, and when the figure landed an energy wave erupted and the Heartless were destroyed instantly.

"Michael," Sora yelled.

Michael stood there his Keyblade crackled slightly from the energy attack. Then he ran over, stooped low and picked up something, but that something was actually someone and that someone was… Yuffie?

_This just got more freakin weird than it needed to be. _

* * *

Michaels POV

I have been walking for what seems like hours down the alley in the Second District, I was supposed to find Sora, Mark, and Matt; I actually spent most of the time fighting off Heartless. I had to get away, the Heartless were relentless and I was starting to get tired, I ran through the first door and I found and ran down the hallway. I turned around to make sure there weren't any Heartless following me; I sighed in relief and looked forward… only to collide right into someone. I fell backwards and groaned, I lifted my head to see whom I hit and I almost gasped, for right in front off me was the one and only; Squall Leonhart.

"Would you watch where you're going," Squ- err, Leon said gruffly.

"S-sorry," I got to my feet, and Squ- LEON stood up as well, then he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Who are you," Leon asked (finally, I said Leon not Squall… and that doesn't count).

"I'm Michael," I answered automatically.

"Leon," he answers simply, "Listen watch yourself here, there are… monsters running about so be careful."

I nod and he runs off, _where's he going in such a hurry, _I thought

I wanted to follow him but I was too tired to fight anymore Heartless, so I decided to rest here instead. I walked up to the front desk, and I asked the receptionist for a room, she gave me a key and told me I was in the yellow room. The yellow room wasn't hard to find, it was the first room down the hall, and it wasn't that bad either: it was a simple room with one bed, a sofa with a small coffee table in front of it, there was also a bathroom with a shower, and then I realized I needed a shower, badly.

* * *

After awhile I stepped out of the bathroom with my towel, my under shirt and boots were next to the bed, I slipped on my pants, picked up my face towel and started to dry off my hair when I heard a noise, like a giggle. I slowly lowered my towel and summoned my Keyblade, then I spun around pointing the Keyblade out in the air, and I saw a small shadow leaping out of the balcony and into the alley. I quickly slipped on my undershirt and shoes and ran out of the room and out onto the hotel entrance, I looked around, but I didn't see anybody which was odd, the balcony may have been close to the entrance, but it didn't take too long to get from the yellow room to outside, the person or thing couldn't have escaped that quickly. But contrary to the facts there was no one I felt stupid about chasing some flickering shadow.

_Man I never felt this paranoid since… no! That's in the past alright you moved on from that. _

Pushing the past out of my head I turned around to go inside, when all of a sudden four Soldier type Heartless came out of nowhere surrounding me.

I raised the Keyblade and attacked the Heartless behind me, it dissipated instantly, I propelled myself off of the ledge and onto the square, the Heartless leaping after me. I ran towards the center and turned around in time to see a Heartless jump right at me, I swung my Keyblade and cut one Heartless, it dissipated as it fell to the ground, but the other two don't charge at me like he first one, instead they circle around me, like a predator to the prey. Then they both leaped aiming to tackle me, I grinned and sidestepped out of the way, the Heartless rammed each other instead then I took the opportunity and struck; stabbing one Heartless in the chest and beheading the other.

When the Heartless dissipated I heard another sound, and I stopped because it sounded like… clapping?

I spun around looking for the disembodied noise, and then a voice rang out:

"Wow, that was great, then again how could I doubt the legendary Keyblade Master!"

Now I was really frustrated, this is the second time there was a mysterious thing beyond my reach and I yelled:

"Show yourself!"

There was a sigh and the voice spoke again, "Ooh, he's got a temper, better watch that anger of yours, wouldn't want anything to happen to you so early, huh."

It sounded like it was coming from above me, I looked up and on the hotels rooftop was a girl around sixteen, maybe older; she had short raven hair with a white bandana on her head, a yellow scarf around her neck, a green top with straps around her shoulders, bright orange gauntlets on her hands, and a pair of short-shorts.

_Short-shorts! What kind girl goes around in public wearing SHORT-SHORTS!_

The girl giggled and leaped off the rooftop, I cried out in surprise thinking she splat on the ground, I wasn't that far off. When she jumped off the roof she landed on some smaller rooftops, but when she made it to the one close to the ground she slipped and fell to the ground, landing on her back, I winced and started to walk over when she stood back up.

"Ok, it seems I need to work on that a little more," the girl mumbled, rubbing her back.

I just stared at her, _what kind of person leaps off a rooftop without any training?_

She brushed off the dust from her pa-, err, legs and stared back at me, her hands on her hips.

I decided to finally say something, "And you are?"

She looked at me offended, looking away from me she scoffed, crossing her arms, and suddenly I had a sense of deja'vu.

"You don't know who I am," she asked, a little angry as if her name should be basic knowledge, now I really felt like I should know her.

Then it finally clicked and I stepped back in shock, she jumped a little at my sudden change of attitude, I fumbled for words in my mouth and finally they came.

"Y-you're Yuffie, the ninja-something-or-the-other!"

Her face was a mixture of offense and anger as she screeched, "Unbelievable, first you say you don't know me, now you say you do, what are you playing at!"

I paused and said, "You're bizarre."

She looked like she would blow from anger, but instead she took a deep breath and was back to her positive attitude.

"Never mind, so you're the Keyblade Master," she said, false cheeriness brimming from her.

I hesitated a little, "I… wouldn't say I'm the Keyblade Master, but-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, listen there are too many Heartless roaming around, I'll take you somewhere safe come on," Yuffie said cutting me off.

I stopped shocked for a minute, something wasn't right about the way she said it, _she saw how I handled the Heartless why would she-,_

Then I figured it out and I grew a little angry_, she's going to try and knock me unconscious and then drag me straight to Leon._

I know what you're thinking, sure I could have gone with her peacefully, but it's the fact that she planned to harm me was what pissed me off, I have been harmed before, and I don't intend to be harmed again.

So I stopped and asked myself, _what would Dean Winchester do?_

I grinned and told her, "I'm sure you would like that, thanks doll, but I don't swing that way."

The look on her face was priceless at my deduction of the meaning of her request, and then she sighed and took out a big shuriken and glared at me.

"You're coming with me, whether you want to or not!"

I narrowed my eyes and summoned the Keyblade, "You could try."

(_Play, Learn the hard way, Nickelback)_

We stood there staring at each other weapons drawn, and then Yuffie threw her shuriken at me, I ran forward and knocked it out of the way. Yuffie stepped back in shock and disappeared in a cloud of smoke just as my Keyblade came down.

_I forgot about move of hers now what?_

Then I heard a sound like a breath of air being forced out, and I looked behind me to see Yuffie pick up her shuriken and ran right at me jabbing her shuriken straight out. I sidestepped out of the way and to my surprise Yuffie brought the shuriken sideways, I raised my Keyblade and blocked the blow and started a series of blade swipes, Yuffie was forced to parry my blows and she was unable to get in any of her own.

Then she disappeared again and reappeared in the air throwing her shuriken as she fell, this time I raised my Keyblade and brought it down just when the shuriken was close enough, it clattered on the floor with a clang and in one quick motion I picked up the shuriken. Yuffie cringed as I just took her weapon from her, she reached in a bag on her belt and pulled a bunch of smaller shurikens and threw them, I moved out of the way quickly the shurikens scraping my right shoulder; they stung like a swarm of angry bees.

Then her foot connected with my chest sending me backwards and I hit the wall, when I was trying to get my bearings Yuffie lifted her foot and placed it on my throat, right on my Adams Apple and pinned me to the wall.

_(End Learn the hard way)_

I tried to grab the foot and push it off, but Yuffie pressed tighter, she smiled and reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone.

"Hold on a sec," she said, dialing a number on her phone.

I could hear it ringing and a feminine voice answered, "Hello?"

"Aerith, is Leon with you… no? Well, hurry and find him," she glanced at me and turned to the phone, "the great ninja Yuffie just found the Keyblade Master!"

So that's the name, Great Ninja Yuffie, I knew it was something so simple and yet…

Then Yuffie started to frown, then she looked frustrated, and then shocked, I could tell cause she was talking really fast.

"_What-do-you-mean-you-already-found-the-Keyblade-master-and-what-do-you-mean-by-three?__!"_

I didn't understand a word she just said, but I did catch, 'Keyblade Master' and 'three'. I had no time to ponder about that for I had my opportunity to escape, I took my foot and knocked Yuffies other foot out from under her, she yelped and fell down, I grabbed the cell phone and said to a confused Aerith.

"Aerith, yeah, Yuffie will have to call you back," I said and I shut the phone.

I looked down to see Yuffie try to get to her feet, only to have my foot on her back pushing her firmly to the ground.

"Hey! Let me up, LET ME UP NOW," Yuffie shrieked, and I clicked my tongue.

"Now, that's not very nice," I said, quoting Jack Sparrow from the Black Pearl movie.

Yuffie craned her head to look at me, a look of humiliation and defeat on her face, and then all of a sudden it turned to fear. I looked above me and gasped, above us were very large and three very big Heartless. I stepped off Yuffie and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the way, when the Heartless jumped down it made an impact mark on the ground. Yuffie got her feet and I handed her shuriken back to her and said, "Truce?"

Yuffie nodded, "Truce."

We turned to the Heartless and got into our battle stances.

_(Play Michaels' theme: Fly from the inside, Shinedown)_

"Hey 'you' those are Fat Body Heartless, they're really tough," Yuffie called out, looking nervous.

I glance at her and said, "So, we'll take them down just like any other Heartless!"

Yuffie seems get confidence from mine and leaps forwards and starts to distract the Heartless, they look at her and start to lumber towards her, I take the opportunity and attack the closest Fat Body… only to have my blade bounce off it doing no damage whatsoever.

"Argh, how could I forget, they're impervious to frontal attacks," I mutter, looking back at the Fat Body that's lugging towards me, "I have to attack from behind!"

The Fat Body swings its arms and I leap out of the way and strike its back; the Heartless yelled out and spun around, hitting me with one of its arms and sent me flying. I landed on the ground and groaned, I hated to be thrown around; I look up and see Yuffie leaping around the three Fat Bodies, which were enclosing around her.

"Hey, 'you' a little help," Yuffie cries out as she throws her shuriken, which bounces off the Heartless lamely.

Then a Fat Body lands a hit and Yuffie is knocked to the ground, she groans slightly and she looked at me, her face full of shock, she reminded me of Kairi when she was…

"No! Leave her alone," I yell at the Heartless, but it ignores me, I run up to strike it only to get smacked away again.

Then I heard something come from the Heartless something like… laughter?

_Are they laughing at me? They are laughing, stop LAUGHING._

"I'm not weak you hear me, I'M NOT WEAK," I yelled, my body slightly glowing blue.

The Heartless looked confused and just stared at me; one of them was halfway about to crush Yuffie, its foot planted on her back so she couldn't escape.

"I… said… leave… her… ALONE!"

I felt the power well of up inside me like a bubbling spring, I looked at my hands to see they are completely covered in a blue aura, I looked at the Heartless and ran toward them yelling:

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

I yelled the special ability that Shadow the Hedgehog uses and time seemed to slow, running quickly I sliced one Fat Body on the back, ran over sliced the other one, and jumped sliced the last one. Time finally sped back up and the Heartless roared in pain, but not enough for them to dissipate, luckily for me I had one last move, I raised my Keyblade and yelled:

"RETRIBUTION!"

A single beam of light came from the sky and touched the Keyblade, the Keyblade began to glow with a bright aura and I ran forward. One Fat Body charged at me and jumped, Yuffie cried out but it didn't matter, I swung the Keyblade and an explosion erupted, and the Fat Body exploded from the light power my Keyblade was charged with. I ran and sliced the other one and it exploded as well, the last one tried to run or teleport away, but it was too late, I leaped in the air and brought my sword down, a thin line of light appeared on the Heartless just as it exploded.

When the last Fat Body dissipated I fell to one knee, exhausted from the sheer raw power I unleashed.

_(End Michaels' theme)_

After a quick breather I got to my feet and ran towards Yuffie, who was still staring at me oddly as I knelt down beside her.

"Are you alright," I asked.

Yuffie continued to stare and then she muttered "Yeah I'm fine."

She tried to stand up, but about halfway up she cried out and fell on her knee, I took her arm and helped her up.

"We need to get to Leon," Yuffie said, looking at the hotel.

We walked over to the entrance and tried to open it, but to our surprise it was locked, then I remembered the receptionist say something about closing up and groaned.

"Guess we'll have to go through the alley," I say supporting Yuffie, on my shoulder and we began to trudge down the alley.

"Hey, thanks for saving me earlier," Yuffie muttered, she sounded tired.

"Your welcome, by the way, my name is not 'you'," I say with a grin, "It's Michael."

Yuffie smiled weakly, "Ok Michael, lead the way."

* * *

Matts' POV

I woke up in the one place I did not want to be: Traverse Town.

_Oh man, wait a minute, this is Traverse Town. Could Sora still be in the ally from the First District?_

I ran over to the alley only to find out he was gone; I stopped and thought about it for a minute, until I realized he might be in the Second District.

I ran to the Second District, opened the door and ran through to find as I suspected; the Second District was completely empty. Then I heard a noise and I turned around, was it the others? I looked down and noticed the black shadows come from the ground and multiply around me, then I saw a flash of light in my hand, and there was my Keyblade. I got in my into battle stance as the Heartless surrounded me.

_(Play Matts' theme: Over my Head, by Lit)_

I ran at the Heartless and cried: "Thunder!"

I spun around them at the same time I was using the Thunder spell, I felt slightly dizzy after using the spell, but still I ran at them slashing ones that tried to hit me. I slid under a Fat Body, jumped up and hit it in the neck, but it didn't help so much because there was at the least 15 more Heartless coming from the ground, half of them jumped at me, in desperation I cried: "FIRE!"

The Fire spell did its job, but there were still half of them left and I felt even weaker than before.

"Fire," I said weakly.

Unfortunately the Fire spell wasn't as strong as before and the Heartless leaped on top of me, then I noticed something maybe I triggered it by my fear or something else, but I felt powerful.

"I'm getting ticked," I said angrily, and blasted the Heartless back.

Then I ran at them and to my surprise I used Firaga and Blizzaraga, the Heartless I hit dissipated instantly. Then I jumped back then I looked at myself to see the weirdest thing that happened me; there was one Fire wing and one Ice wing on my back, on my hands there was a pair of Thunder gauntlets and my chest was covered in an Aero spell armor. I flew up in air and yelled:

"Anima Overload!"

Then I started to blast the Heartless with every third level spell I can think of, the Heartless were blasted into oblivion, unfortunately I couldn't take the power of the move and I fainted.

_(End Over My Head Matts' theme)_

* * *

The first thing I saw was the color red, no really the color red. I lifted my head to see a woman with brown hair tied up in a ponytail, a pink bow on top, she wore a pink dress, and had bracelets on her hands.

"Are you alright," she asked and I sat up.

I looked over to my side and to surprise, Donald and Goofy standing there, Donald holding his staff out at his side.

"Donald here was grateful enough to heal you with Cure magic, it's a good thing you're okay, Matt," the woman sighed in relief.

"Ah, thanks I- wait, how do you know my name," I asked.

"The King said you would be here, and I assume you are the youngest of your brothers correct," the woman said asked.

I was confused which is normally not a first, but still how did the King know about Michael, Mark, and I?

"Who are you," I asked.

The woman smiled, "My name is Aerith, I was the one who found you, I already introduced you to Donald and this one is-"

"Goofy, I know," I answered without really thinking.

Luckily Goofy didn't catch the fact I knew his name and just nodded.

"Yep I'm Goofy, nice to meet'cha Matt," Goofy said happily.

Then there was a ringing noise from Aeriths pocket, and she took out her cell phone and answered, "Hello?"

I could hear a voice on the other end of the phone, "Aerith is Leon with you?"

"No-"

"Well hurry and find him, I the great ninja Yuffie-"

_Yuffie that's Yuffie on the phone?_

"- have just found the Keyblade Master!"

"KEYBLADE MASTER," I yelled, everyone turned and looked at me.

"Yuffie, we already found the Keyblade Master, in fact we found three of them," Aerith said in a pity like voice.

Then what happened next made Aerith and I cringe:

"_What-do-you-mean-you-already-found-the-Keyblade-master-and-what-do-you-mean-by-three?__!"_

Then there was a yelp and a smack-like sound, and a different voice spoke over the phone and I gasped: it was Michael.

"Hello, Aerith, yeah, Yuffie will have to call you back." Then the phone hung up.

_Michael…are you doing what Dean Winchester would do, awesome._

I stood up and walked around, I turned to Aerith and asked, "Leon is in that room over there right?"

She gasped slightly, but nodded and I continued, "Who's with him?"

But before Aerith could answer Leon burst into the room, slamming Donald into the wall.

"Aerith, take the boy and go the Heartless are here, we'll hold them off, go!"

_We'll?_

Suddenly Aerith grabbed my arm pulled me out of the room and dragged me down the hall. When we made it outside Heartless appeared out of thin air, Aerith cried out and I summoned my Keyblade.

"I got'em!"

I ran forward and jumped sliced the Shadow Heartless and stabbed a Soldier Heartless that charged at me, then a Fat Body appeared and smacked me toward Aerith, who cried out and cast Cure on me.

"Alright, let's see how you handle this," I tried to call up Anima Overdrive, and I started to feel the power come back to me.

But before I could use it a figure jumped down and sliced the Fat Body in two, my jaw dropped the person who slew the Heartless was-

"Michael?"

Michael grinned evilly, "Not exactly."

'Michael' stepped out of the shadows, only to see he was a 'shadow' itself.

"More like; Anti Michael," the shadow grinned.

It stepped forward holding a pitch-black katana, and pointed it at me, "So you're his brother."

"Outta my way," I yelled, charging up my super move.

Anti Michael smirked and waved his hand, and I felt the power I built up fade away.

"Huh- what- how," I stammered.

"Your powers don't work on me, so sorry," Anti Michael cackled.

Anti Michael turned around held his hand up and said, "The stage is set, the actors are here, and now it will soon be the fateful climax for your brother; Michael."

I didn't say anything and he continued:

"Michael has great darkness in his heart, if you need more proof look at me, I have seen his rage and I have seen his heart, if he killed people like he killed those Heartless in cold blood, it will be inevitable that I will emerge the victor."

I heard enough, I charged forward and sliced at the shadow; he raised his sword and parried my attack.

"Go and save your brothers now," he grinned and disappeared in thin air.

I looked in front of me and saw Mark, Sora, and the real Michael ahead, Aerith and I ran up to meet them.

* * *

Marks' POV

"Michael," Sora cried out, looking behind us as Michael carried in one hand, his Keyblade and under his arm, Yuffie.

Suddenly Leon started to groan, "Wait you're a Keyblade Master too, oh god, that means Yuffie was- wait, is that…"

Michael nodded quickly, "Yeah, and she's hurt, Leon can you take her to Aerith?"

Then Yuffie looked at Michael and Leon and began to protest.

"Uh-uh, no way, I'm fighting, I'm perfectly-gah!"

Yuffie cried out in pain and Leon took Yuffie in his arm, Michael loosened up his free arm and turned to Sora and I.

"So we got some bad guys to take down right, so let's get cracking!"

"We kind of already started, hope you don't mind," I smiled.

"Yeah I do mind!"

Michael looked behind him and I craned my neck over his shoulder, and saw Matt leaning against the building wall, behind him was a young woman wearing a pink dress.

_That must be Aerith_, I realized as Leon gave a protesting Yuffie over to Aerith. I heard Michael mutter 'so that's the three Yuffie babbled about' and I cringed. I don't hate Yuffie, hate is too strong of a word to say about someone, but she is a little annoying… to me at least.

Then a bunch of Heartless appeared in front of us, the four of us drew our weapons as Leon ran in front of us yelling:

"Don't bother with the small fry, find their leader!"

Leon dragged Revolver across the ground and swung it upward cleaving a Heartless in half, then he stabbed one in the head, and kicked another one in the small canal. Michael rushed forward and finished the Heartless that was in the canal, Sora and I ran after Leon, but a bunch of Soldier Heartless in front of us blocked our path, before they could strike Matt ran up and cast multiple fire spells, knocking the Heartless backwards. Sora wrenched the door open to the second district and we ran through, we looked around, but didn't see any other Heartless but the common kind.

"Let's head to the third district," Matt yelled, heading to the alley that leads to the third district.

* * *

The third district was as small as the first district, except that there was nobody but us, or so we thought. When we made it to the square there was a loud explosion, followed by some loud yelling, when we looked up we saw two objects falling right to us, Sora cried out and tried to run out of the way, but he didn't get far before the two objects landed on his back.

_Ouch._

The two objects were none other than Donald and Goofy, they were still shaking the cobwebs out of their heads when they saw Soras' Keyblade and cried out.

"The Key!"

But when Donald and Goofy saw ours Goofy said something surprising, "And the other keys are here too, just as the King said they would!"

"Others?"

Michael looked at us and then back at Donald and Goofy.

"How did you know about the-whoa!"

Michael was interrupted by a loud noise; a rumbling sound filled the air, and giant square shaped pillars shot out of the ground, covering the entrances preventing us from escaping, then a swarm of Heartless appeared surrounding us.

"We gotta beat the Heartless first, and then we can talk," I yelled, getting into a fighting stance.

_(Play, Comrades, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones)_

I charged forward at the Soldier Heartless and I was met with a painful tackle, I flipped over to the side and clutched my ribs. The Heartless charged at me and leaped forward…only to meet Goofys' shield, it impacted on it hard and dissipated. Matt was casting bunch of blizzard spells hoping to freeze the Heartless from charging at him, but one Heartless got through and lunged forward, then Donald ran forward and stopped it with a Fire spell.

"Nice one," Matt grinned.

"Not bad yourself," Donald smiled back, "how old are you eight?"

Matts face etched into a scowl and glared at Donald, who looked confused.

I looked over to Sora and Michael, who were standing back to back, they looked at each other then Michael grabbed Soras' arm and spun Sora around, who was hitting the Heartless as he was being spun. I saw a few Heartless heading for them and I jumped forward stabbing each Heartless in the back, and I didn't notice the other one heading for me, until Michael jumped and sliced it in the air. The last Heartless headed towards Sora who ran forward dragging his Keyblade across the floor, and then upper cutting the Heartless cleaving it in two, he landed on the ground and looked back at us and he grinned.

_(End, Comrades)_

Then all of a sudden Sora cried out, when we looked up we saw several objects fall straight to the ground. But instead of impacting they bounced up in the air and started to connect to each other, they formed some kind of limbless monster, and then one smaller part fell and landed on the head. The body was bell shaped, four other parts were the hands and legs, and the last smaller part looked like the helmet of a medieval knight, with a face guard, and had a pointed arrow on his head. And we braced ourselves for Guard Armor has come.

_(Play, The 13th Dilemma, Yoko Shimomura)_

"It's Guard Armor," Matt yelled out, as Sora ran forward and charged at the Guard Armor.

Sora leaped up and tried to slice the head, only to have the hand block his attack and send him flying.

Donald raised his staff and yelled, "Cure!"

Soras wounds healed and he stood back up, wobbling slightly before turning to us.

"It's tougher than it looks," Sora admitted.

"Alright, I'll distract the separate body parts, you attack the body," Michael yelled.

Then Michael's body glowed bright blue and Michael bellowed, "Chaos Control!"

_Chaos Control? The move from Sonic the Hedgehog? How did Michael learn that?_

Michael disappeared and slash marks appeared on the floating body parts, and Michael reappeared behind them, jumped back and called out another move.

"Retribution!"

A beam of light hit Michaels' Keyblade and it was covered in an aura of light, he ran up to the charging parts and each time he slashed a part it exploded with the power of light, then Michael spun in a three-sixty, hitting the parts around him, a thin circle of light appeared around him and the parts exploded in one final explosion.

"Yeah, the hands are gone," I yelled with happiness, but then it turned to terror, "Michael, watch out!"

Michael turned around and gasped as the legs flew towards him and hit him.

"Thunder," Donald and Matt yelled, striking one of its legs destroying it.

Goofy gave Michael a potion, and Michael gulped it down quickly. Sora and I ran up slashing its other leg destroying it, all that was left was the head.

"We need to get to the head," I said, then I looked at Sora, "Sora, jump on my Keyblade!"

"What?"

"Just do it!"

Sora ran up to me, jumped on my Keyblade and I threw him right up to its face, Sora lunged forward in the air, raised his Keyblade, and swung the blade, cutting through Guard Armors head. The head froze, then it shuddered and it fell off the bell shaped body, we stood there as Sora landed on the ground, tensing up in case the Heartless was going to attack again, but then it turned into a big heart and it floated away.

_(End The 13th Dilemma)_

* * *

"You guys were looking for us," Sora said, gesturing towards us.

Donald and Goofy both nod and a voice catches our attention.

"They too were seeking the wielders of the Keyblade."

Leon and Yuffie stood behind us, apparently just arrived.

Then Goofy said, "Hey, why don't you guys come with us, we can go to other worlds on our vessel."

"I wonder, do you think I could find Riku and Kairi," Sora said looking down.

"Of course," Donald said quickly.

But I was distracted away from the conversation by Yuffie, who approached Michael from behind, limping.

"So you're alive," she said, as if she was disappointed.

"Yep, too bad looks like I'll be around to kick your ass again," Michael smirked, and I winced waiting for the inevitable blow.

Instead Yuffie grinned back.

"I'll be waiting," then she added a little seductively, "See ya around stud."

_I think all the blood has left my head and went to my stomach_, I looked at Michael and he looked disappointed?

_I thought he was over that; it wasn't his fault, she deserved what she did to Michael, _I thought bitterly about Michaels past and I turned back to the others.

"Hey, no frowning, no sad faces," said Donald looking at Sora, Michael, and I.

"Yeah, you gotta look funny like us," Goofy said, making a bad funny face.

"This ship runs on happy faces," Donald said smiling.

Sora and I looked down.

"Happy," we both said, then we decided to show our funny faces, but I guess they weren't really not that funny because it was silent, and after that Goofy, Donald, and Matt broke out in laughter.

"Haha, that's two funny faces," Goofy said.

"Ok, sure we'll all come," Sora grinned.

"Yeah, it we'll be fun," I said, thinking of being in space.

"Cool, I always wanted to drive a spaceship," Matt cried ecstatically.

"Heh, no, I will drive," said Donald.

"Hey, not cool," Matt yelled.

Michael stepped up "You guys helped Mark and Matt, so I will help too."

And after that I knew not only I'm not going to get out of Traverse Town, I'm going to have the adventure of a lifetime…that just means that its going to get a lot harder from here on out.

* * *

Please Review but no FLAMES! And again we're really sorry we'll try to update more often, next up Wonderland


	4. Through the Rabbit Hole

Disclaimer: We do not own Kingdom Hearts… we wish, but we don't, this stupid fanfic will do in the meantime.

Michael Fri here, complaining about how the KH people took out the Roxas versus Sora boss fight.

Mark and Matt: Oh not this again.

Michael: I'm serious the boss fight would have made a great battle, but noooooooo, they had to cut it out and release it for that stupid Final Mix version that will (at the current moment) not come out in America!

Mark: … Ok I admit that was unfair.

Matt: I… guess.

Michael: Alright now that this matter is settled let's go to the reviews.

Count X. Gamlxtoe: Eh, it's okay, 8 out of 10 isn't so bad.

Mentality at its Worse: Welcome to Keys of Destiny, here are our thoughts about your reveiw:

Michael: Yeah I missed a few of those.

Mark: We added a few of our own scenes to explain some things the game didn't.

Matt: I think Chapter 3 came pretty well too.

Walkazo: Welcome Walkazo to Keys of Destiny, Michael has this to say:

Michael: Yes Kairi's fate was pretty sad, but the game progressed it like that, we just added and explainatory, oh and the first chapter and prolouge is in one chapter because we like the fact that they were in one chapter.

Well that's it, four revews aren't bad, now for the chapter.

* * *

Chapter plot by: Michael, Mark, and Matt Fri (Black Scepter)

Typed by: Michael Fri

Edited by: Michael Fri

Proofreaders for chapters 1-3: Walkazo, and Mentality at its Worse.

* * *

Traverse Town,

Chapter 4

Through the rabbit hole

Matt's POV

Sora, Mark, and I were at the town square in the first district when we were approached by Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie.

Leon came up to us first, "Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead of you, we don't know how far the Heartless had spread."

"Be sure to check out the shops here they have a bunch of neat stuff," Yuffie chimed in.

"This is from all of us," Aerith handed Sora a small bag, "Spend it as you see fit."

"Thanks," Sora said, placing the bag in his pocket.

Suddenly a small voice called out, "Well I can see big adventures coming our way."

We looked down and saw a tiny cricket wearing a suit and hat.

"Who are you," Sora asked.

"Cricket's the name, Jiminy Cricket at your service, anyway when you guys visit world you guys tell me what happened and I'll write it down to keep a record, okay?"

Sora nodded and so did the rest of us.

Yuffie paused and looked around, "Hey where's Michael?"

"Sorry I'm late."

Michael came out of a shop and said, "I needed to get some new clothes, what do you think?"

Michael was now wearing a black leather jacket with a matching black T-shirt under it, he had leather pants as well a pair of black gloves, and his boots were big black swashbuckler style boots.

"Not bad," Mark said, as Michael walked over to stand over with us.

"I like it too," Yuffie said, tilting her head to the side, "it looks cool on you."

Michael just frowned and mumbled, "Thanks."

"Look at those dorky shoes," I giggled.

Mark turned to Michael, "On three?"

Michael nodded, "Three."

The two of them have walked beside me, I knew what was about to happen, but before I could do anything it was too late.

"No!"

The both of them slapped me on the back of the head.

"What's the matter with you," I whined, "You guys are evil!"

Michael grunted, Mark started laughing, and even Sora chuckled a little before Donald and Goofy came up to us.

"The Gummi Ship is over there," Donald said.

"The what," Sora asked.

"That's going to be our ship," Michael said, turning to Donald and Goofy, "don't you have stuff for us?"

Goofy frowned a little and said, "Oh that's right, Donald why don't you show them how to use magic?"

Donald nodded, "Oh okay."

Donald nodded and took out three crystals.

"Matt I would have given you one, but you already know magic so," Donald said, "These crystals allow people to use magic, they respond to your soul when you want to use them, but for now they are inactive so you'll have to wait a bit before these crystals respond and give you magic."

It was silent until Sora said, "What?"

I immediately knew what was coming… again.

"Oh don't do it," I said, but no one heard it.

Mark turned Michael, "On three?"

Michael nodded and they edged closer to Sora, and when they were close enough Michael said, "Three!"

The two of them smacked Sora on the back of his head, and he cried out, "OW!"

Leon chuckled softly, Yuffie burst out laughing, and Aerith just shook her head. Sora rubbed his head and started to chuckle a little at his self humiliation.

"Okay, I might have deserved that," Sora said, "but come on were wasting time!"

"Good luck," Leon said.

"Be careful," Aerith nodded.

"Come back soon," Yuffie chirped.

"Hopefully not for awhile," Mark happily replied.

Michael and Yuffie exchanged a glance.

"On three," Yuffie smirked.

"Ooh, ooh, can I help," I asked.

"H-help with what," Mark said nervously.

Sora started to laugh; "Now you're in trouble."

Mark looked at the three of us edging closer, and started to chuckle nervously. "Heh, heh, heh… time to go."

Mark took off running and Michael, Yuffie, and I took off after him.

I yelled out to him, "Stop your whining, and take it like a man!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, LEMME ALONE!"

Mark tore through the exit and to the Gummi Ship; we said our last goodbyes and followed a screaming Mark.

…

Gummi Ship

The Gummi Ship was bigger on the inside than the outside looked like; it had separate rooms for each of us and of course the cockpit.

"This ship is called; The Black Scepter," Donald said, leading us through the cockpit.

"Black Scepter," I said, "I've heard that name before."

"It's an idiot's name," Mark said.

"Yeah, who'd call a ship Black Scepter," Michael said.

Then I had an idea, "Okay let's call it: The Butterfly!"

That earned an uncomfortable silence as everyone stared at me with an odd look on their faces.

"The what," Sora half shouted.

"Never mind, it was a joke," I sighed.

"Oh, okay good," Donald said, and he went back to the controls.

Michael motioned for Mark and me to come with him, so we exited the cock pit and followed him to a room on the far side of the hall, this I guess was Michaels room it was pretty bare, but then again Michael really didn't have any belongings to put in.

"Okay what are we going to do about this," Michael asked, crossing the room and sitting on his bed.

"Well let's think; we know how the game went so, what will happen next," Mark asked, leaning on the wall.

I thought about it and said, "Well I guess we're going to Wonderland."

Michael nodded and Mark thought so as well, then Michael hunched over placed his elbows on his legs and his hands on his chin.

"I meant about", Michael held his hand out and his Keyblade appeared, "this."

Mark sighed, "I don't know I mean Sora always locked the worlds… does this mean we have to lock the worlds as well?"

"I guess… we do," Michael frowned, and his Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light.

I didn't know what was so bad about this; I mean how many people in the world of Earth get to enter a universe of fantasy and adventure… don't answer that one okay? Then I thought about the bad parts of it; the chances of dying is more, then again on Earth you could easily get shot just by walking down the street… then again on Earth the chances of getting killed by a sword wielding manic are extremely rare.

"We could, but why don't we just let Sora handle it," I suggested, sitting cross legged on the floor.

"Because we have Keyblades as well dimwit," Mark said, as if it was something we have to do.

Before I could say anything the door opened and Sora came inside, when he saw us he said:

"You better come to the cockpit, Donald and Goofy said that they found a world to investigate."

Michael nodded and got up and went out of the door, Mark and I went out as well and we entered the cockpit. There was actually one more problem that only I knew about; the shadow running about calling himself Anti Michael.

I never got around to telling them about it and I'm starting to think that I shouldn't, then again if the shadow appears again there would be trouble… for me.

But I decided not to think about it for awhile, we were closing in on a world now so we had to get ready to land.

"We're almost ready to land, so get ready," Goofy announced.

We all sat down and buckled up and waited for when the ship landed, as we got closer to the planet the ship started to rumble and shake. Now I had never been on a plane before, Michael has, twice even, Mark… well that's another story. Anyway Michael said that when a plane encounters some rough winds it shakes around a bit, it is called… turbulence? Yeah, that's right, turbulence.

So if you're wondering why I even brought this up, well the shaking on the ship is getting worse by the minute, until finally it stops shaking and after a brief silence, then the computer said in a digital voice:

"You have arrived."

"You gotta be kidding me," Mark shouted all tensed up, he really hated flying.

Sora looked around and said, "Are you sure we landed, I don't see anything."

I got up and Donald did as well, we opened the door and looked around; it was really dark, pitch black actually.

"Well, the computer says we landed so we have to be on a planet," Donald said.

Michael came up and said, "Well someone has to check, right?"

I nodded, "Ooh, ooh, I'll do it!"

"Um, I'm not sure," Michael paused and then he said, "Okay go ahead."

Michael gave me a little push and I stepped forward… and fell straight down, I started yelling as I fell down.

* * *

Wonderland

Michael's POV

"Oops."

That was all I could say, I just pushed my little brother down a deep, dark hole, which was probably full of sharp rocks or anything else… Matt can withstand and still complain about a tiny cut on his pinky.

Mark looked down the hole over my shoulder, he stared at it for awhile and said:

"Oh man."

He lifted his foot forward and brought it back, then lifted it forward… and then back again. Finally I got sick of it and lifted him up and tossed him down headfirst.

"WhaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH."

There was silence and then:

"It's dark down here."

"You just killed your two brothers," Sora yelled.

"Oh I wish, but you heard Mark right, so he's alive, and now it's your turn," I picked up Sora and tossed him down as well.

I turn to look at Donald and Goofy, they looked at me for a minute and then leaped down the hole after them, I followed as well. It was at first very dark but then there was a sound, the sound of ticking clocks. Then in fact there were clocks floating all around me and I was falling slowly, like I was on a soft cushion of warm air, then I landed on the ground standing upright and looked around, to see everyone else sprawled on the floor.

"Get up lazy bums," I said, lifting up Sora who moaned and stood straight up.

"I'm gonna kill you Michael," Mark moaned getting on his feet.

But before any of us could do anything, something else caught our attention; a white rabbit.

It ran around and yelled, "Oh my fur and whiskers I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

Matt got up and yelled, "Late? Who cares if your late, I'm in a another freaking world, that's more important than running late," Matt paused and then added, "and get yourself a new watch that might help a little."

But the rabbit hurried on, unaware we were even here.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, I'm here, but I should be there," the rabbit panicked, "Oh the queen, she'll have my head for sure!"

The rabbit disappeared through a door and we stared at it for a bit, then I turned to the others, "Come on guys, we better follow it."

"Follow it, why would you want to follow it, it's psychotic," Matt burst out.

"Got a better plan," I asked.

"Uhhhh, well… no," Matt got up, and went towards the door and walked through it.

"Great, let's go," Mark stumbled towards the door.

Sora gave me a shrug and Donald and Goofy followed us inside.

…

The room we entered looked like something out of an ice cream parlor, or some sort of fancy room you wouldn't expect to find in a place like this.

Sora nudged my shoulder and pointed over at the other side of the room; I looked in time to see the white rabbit run through a small door, even too small for Matt.

Sora leaned forward, examined the door closely, and then he looked at us with a befuddled look.

"How'd he get so small?"

"No you're simply too big."

The voice came from out of nowhere; I jumped a little and looked around. Until Donald yelled out and pointed at the door behind me.

"It talks!"

I turned around and sure enough, the door knob was awake and talking, and it looked like it could just drop off to La-La land any second now.

"Must you be so loud," the Doorknob complained, "You woke me up!"

Goofy waves his hand into a greeting, "Good Morning!"

"Good _night_," the Doorknob yawned, "I need a bit more sleep."

Then the Doorknob gave one shuddering yawn and started to fall back asleep, but Matt had other plans.

"Blizzard," Matt yelled, as the icy cold light slammed into the door.

"OH MY WORD," the Doorknob shrieked, he shook his head violently to rid himself of the numbing cold.

"Listen here pal," Matt pointed at the Doorknob, and it shuddered at him, "We need to get to the other side of this door, you're the only one who knows how, so tell us how to get through; or you'll be spending the next five minutes feeling what it's like to be in a freezer!"

Matt's methods were questionable, but they got the job done at least. The Doorknob gave one final shudder and gestured towards the table behind us:

"Why don't you try the bottle on the table, (glup) i-is that all you'll require," the Doorknob continued to shiver.

I decided to stop this before Matt got magic-happy.

"Yeah that's all, so go back to sleep or whatever," I walked over to the table and picked up the bottle.

I glanced over and saw the Doorknob was asleep again, but he still shuddered slightly as he was sawing logs. We all took a bottle from the table and each took a drink, pretty soon the table shot up to the ceiling, as did every piece of furniture in the room.

"Okay, not that this isn't fun and all, but what do we do now," Mark asked, as he stumbled off the giant chair.

I looked around, trying to find the door that led into the courtyard. Matt sighed and started to walk towards the door, the white icy light charging up in his hands.

"No, not good," I yelled, and pulled Matt away from the doorknob, "You are not going to torture that doorknob again, look over there."

I had finally found what I was looking for; in between the bed cracks was a small hole just big enough for a small person to fit through; like say, us?

"We can all fit through that hole, come on the rabbit is getting away," I said, pulling a protesting Matt, who was asking me to let him go so he could blast the doorknob some more.

…

After awhile of walking through the dark hole we found ourselves entering a hedge maze of some sort, or at least it looked like a hedge maze, more like a clearing. A clearing with podiums, a giant chair and table, and cards… human sized, walking, talking, spear and axe wielding kind of cards, not the kind you want to play solitaire with.

And there was this girl on one of the platforms; she had blond hair that was held back with a blue ribbon, a blue dress with a white apron, the look on her face was one of curiosity.

"Alice," I said quietly.

Then there was this trumpet, and I looked over at the platform and saw the white rabbit blowing into a blow horn.

He finally stopped and panted, "Court is now in session!"

Alice looked up at the rabbit in shock. "I'm on trial, but why?"

_How could you think you're not on trial, did you not notice the guards, or the cage beside the queen… the queen!_

Sure enough, the queen was on the judges' seat, staring at Alice with a glare.

She pointed at Alice and said, "This girl is the culprit; there's no doubt about it!"

"The Queen of Hearts," I quietly said to Sora, "I'm already starting to dislike her."

"How come they're putting that girl on trial," Sora whispered back.

Mark sighed, "I don't know, she seems like the kind of queen who will put the blame on anyone, just because she's a queen."

Then at that moment, the queen said, "And the reason is… because I say so that's why!"

Goofy's eyes widened, "Wow, good job Mark."

"Um… thanks," Mark said, his eyes slightly widened and he gave me a look.

"That is so unfair," Alice protested.

I winced; sometimes Alice should just keep a cool head and tackle the problem carefully.

The queen looked a little intrigued, "Well, have you to say anything to say in your defense?"

"Yes, I have done absolutely nothing wrong," Alice crossed her arms and glared at the queen, "You may be queen, but I'm afraid that does not give you the right to be so… so mean!"

"Silence! You dare defy me," the Queen bellowed.

"Why can't she keep a cool head and keep her mouth shut," I groaned, and Matt nodded.

"Hey guys; we should help her out," Sora said, looking at the terrified Alice.

"Yeah," Donald began, "But, uh-"

"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be 'muddling'," Goofy asked.

"Meddling," Donald and Mark said.

"Oh yeah, and that's against the rules," Goofy scratched his head.

However I could tell Sora didn't really listen, by the way he was glaring at the queen I could tell that he was about to jump in there very soon.

The Queen cleared her throat and said, "The court finds the defendant; Guilty as charged!"

Alice looked pale and Sora looked torn.

"For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of heart," The Queen announced, and Sora gasped, "Off with her head!"

The guards stood at attention and faced Alice, who cried out in desperation:

"No, no, oh please!"

Sora couldn't take it anymore, "Hold it right there!"

I was stunned, he said that so forcefully that I forgot what he was going to do, I knew that Sora had a firm sense of justice, but I didn't think it would have this impact on me, so I ran after him, as did the others.

The Queen did a double take, but then it turned to anger, "Who are you, how dare you interfere with my court!"

Suddenly Sora lost his moment of bravery, "Excuse me, but we know who the culprit is."

Goofy nodded along and said, "Uh huh, it's the Heart-"

But Mark and Matt covered his mouth, and Sora sighed in relief, that was too close.

"Anyway, she's not the one you're looking for."

The Queen sighed, "That's nonsense, have you any proof?"

That made me a little mad, "Excuse me, what about your proof?"

The Queen looked angry, so I decided to take this carefully.

"What I mean to say is… your proof must be definite if you have Alice under trial."

The Queen seemed to regard this, and I added, "The defense would some time to present their proof, if we could have a quick recess?"

The Queen nodded, "Alright, court will take a short recess, gather as much evidence as you please court will reconvene in ten minutes."

I walked over to Sora and said, "Okay, I've gave you enough time for you, Goofy, and Donald to find something that will prove Alice innocent."

Sora looked at me and nodded, the three of them headed for a hole in the hedge maze. But before Sora left he turned to me and asked:

"How did you know what to say?"

I paused and I answered, "Phoenix Wright."

"Who," Sora asked, and I waved my hand dismissively.

"Hurry, we only have ten minutes," I yelled and Sora ran off.

I turned to my brothers and walked up to them, and I saw that they were smirking.

"You just had an out of game experience didn't you," Mark asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I'm not really good at this lawyer stuff, let alone even write a story about one, or whatever."

The three of us stood there for awhile, watching the guards in case they tried to pull a fast one on us. The guards didn't really do much but stand there and keep to their positions, so Matt quietly snuck over to the cage where Alice was being held.

"Psst," Matt whispered sharply.

Alice turned her head to the sound, she leaned forward on the cage bars and whispered back.

"Oh it's you, I'm sorry I put you and your friends through all of this."

"Ah, it's no problem," Matt shrugged.

_Liar, _I thought, if there is one thing Matt dislikes; it's being caught in someone else's problems.

I snuck over there as well, "I don't think we could have done anything to stop Sora anyway, once he has something on his mind he won't stop until it's finished."

Alice tilted her head, "Is… that bad?"

Matt and I looked at each other, then I shrugged, "Not really, but sometimes that kind of determination gets him in trouble."

Alice sighed, "I wish I had known that earlier, maybe I wouldn't be in this mess…"

"It's not your fault, you didn't know," Matt said, leaning on his Keyblade.

_What's with Matt, this is totally unlike him._

I was totally confused, but while I was being confused Mark walked over and pointed over to the hedge exit.

"Hey you two, Sora's back…oh hi Alice," Mark gave a little wave at Alice, and she waved slowly a little confused about Mark's sudden appearance.

"Hey guys, I found some evidence to help save Alice," Sora held out four pinkish boxes.

"So did I," Goofy said, dumping a bunch of stuff on the ground.

Donald sighed, "Those aren't evidence those are just things you want."

Goofy gave a little chuckle, "Ah shucks you think so?"

The four of us, plus Alice, laughed at that while Donald crossed his arms and scoffed.

"Anyway, Sora you better tell the queen we're ready," Donald said, walking over to the defenses' chair.

We said goodbye to Alice and stood next to Sora, the queen reappeared and sat in her chair.

"Alright, present your evidence," The queen said in a bored tone.

Sora placed the four pinkish boxes in front of the judges' chair and stepped back.

"Hey Sora," I asked, leaning forward, "How did you find those boxes?"

Sora scratched his head, "Umm, a purple cat gave it to us… weird huh?"

I nodded, "Yeah weird."

The Queen studied the boxes and motioned to one of her guards, the guard walked over and the Queen pointed at one of the boxes.

"Open that one," she motioned.

The guard walked over and pried open one of the boxes, the all of a sudden a Shadow Heartless leapt out and headed for the cage that held Alice. She gave a little shriek until the Heartless was hit by a fireball, and Donald stood there holding his staff out, the tip of his staff smoked slightly.

"What was that," The Queen shrieked.

Sora stepped forward, "That is our proof that Alice is innocent."

The Queen growled in fury, she balled her fists up and slammed them on the desk.

Until she looked up and smiled evilly, "I am the law here! Article 29: Anyone who defies the Queen is guilty!"

"Hey, we- we just proved she was INNOCENT," Mark bellowed, until he was surrounded by a group of Card Soldiers.

"Eh, never mind," Mark sighed, taking out his Keyblade.

I summoned mine and ran forward, taking my Keyblade and upper cutting one guard in the air. Mark leapt at one, but the guard raised his lance and knocked Mark backwards, the guard ran forward to stab him however Mark as he was falling turned a potential fall into a flip, then Mark faked a blow to the left and grabbed the guards' lance and used the lance and knocked the card on his back.

"Don't sweat it, you just didn't have the 'heart' for it," Mark chuckled and turned to his left, "Hey guys, did you get it? They don't have hearts, yet they're the card of hearts?"

Mark looked at us, expecting anyone to laugh, there was a small silence. But then someone burst out laughing and we looked in front of us; the laughter came from the Queen.

"I-I get it, (heheh) cards (haha), no hearts (heehee), yet they are the cards of hearts, hahahahahahaah," The Queen burst out laughing, and even the guards stopped fighting.

Mark walks over and says, "Ok so, a Priest and a Monk enter a bar and…"

"Um Sora, why don't you go and save Alice now," I muttered to a jaw dropped Sora.

Sora looked at me, confused to what is going. But when I pointed over at the cage he finally knew what he had to do and ran over to the crank, by the time Sora was finished Mark was already starting his most annoying/funniest joke he had.

"Hey mom, do I have to wear my pants; the sign say 'no shoes, no shirts, no service," Mark started to laugh alongside the Queen.

Until the Queen noticed that the cage was being lowered, the Queen knocked Mark aside.

"Alright what is this, knock down the blond day," Mark asked angrily.

"I would be a part of that day," I muttered, and Matt helped Mark up.

We turned our heads to the cage and saw that Alice was gone!

Sora ran up to us and said, "We gotta get outta here!"

The six of us tore out of the hedge maze, past a few guards, ignoring an angry Queen, and finally we exited the maze and into the forest. Upon entering the forest, we stopped and took a short breather, but then Matt cried out and summoned his Keyblade. Behind us was a cat, yes a cat, this cat in question was completely purple, and its head was floating…I can see why Matt yelled out.

"The Cheshire Cat I presume," I said calmly.

When the cat spoke it had an aura of mystery around it, "Your presumptions are correct, as well as your assumptions for ones who have never seen the worlds before."

Sora looked at me oddly and I shrugged, Mark and Matt exchanged glances, but luckily Sora didn't catch it.

Sora turned to the cat and asked, "Have you seen Alice?"

The Cheshire Cat grinned, "Alice no, Shadows yes!"

"Heartless," Mark growled, and I nodded.

"Where did they go," Goofy asked.

The cat crossed his arms and pointed in two different directions, "This way, that way, does it matter?"

The cat moved his arms so that one arm pointed up and the other pointed down.

"Left, right, up, down, all mixed up thanks to the Shadows," the cat pointed his finger out to our right, "Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find some Shadows in the Upside Down Room."

The cat disappeared in thin air and we looked out in the direction of the garden where the path led to a forest of tall (and I mean tall) grass, and swamp reeds. We proceeded down the path and walked for awhile until we came to a small clearing where blades of the tall grass parted to reveal a hole. Sora stepped through the hole and we followed shortly.

…

When we walked through the hole we came across a small courtyard, there was a long table and a set of chairs all in a row, but the place we were looking for was the house next to the table. It looked like a two story house, but if there was one thing we learned in Wonderland it's that looks are deceiving, and it proved out to be true for when we stepped inside the house we were met with a dizzying sight, we were on the ceiling of the room with the door knob. Yet the ceiling looked like a parlor instead, if I looked up/down at the room I would feel like I would fall any minute so I made a point not to look at the room above/below.

Then the Cheshire Cat appeared on one of the tables in the middle of the room.

"They're hiding somewhere, want to find the shadows? Try turning on the lights."

The Cheshire Cat looked over at the two lamps at the tables he was standing on, and he disappeared in thin air, and in his place a bunch of Heartless appeared.

"I'll get the lights," Sora shouted, "Can you guys hold off the Heartless?"

Matt responded by casting Fire on one of the Shadow types that leaped at us.

"Oh, I guess you can," Sora shrugged, and he ran off to the table/chandelier.

Mark ran forward and jumped sliced a Shadow and ran towards a Fat Body, he jumped behind its back and hit it as he passed. The Fat Body yelled out and retaliated by swing his arms, luckily Mark had leaped out of the way and Goofy charged forward, he jumped in the air and slammed his shield down on the Fat Bodies' head. The Fat Body dissipated after that blow, and then another Fat Body appeared and knocked Mark and Goofy across the room, Donald started casting Cure and I ran forward and rolled around the Fat Body, and as I came from behind him I stabbed my Keyblade and lodged it in the Fat Bodies' back. The Fat Body yelled out and hit swung its arms wildly, I pulled my Keyblade out of its back and flipped backwards.

"Thunder," Matt shouted as the lighting bolt crashed down, the Heartless dissipated from the bolt of lighting.

Then Sora yelled out, "I did it!"

We looked up and saw Sora waving from the table/chandelier, and then the Cheshire Cat appeared on one of the tables/chandeliers and he turned to all of us.

"All the lights are on; you'll see the shadows soon. They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else."

"Well, where," Donald asked impatiently.

The Cheshire Cat grinned, "The shadows might go after that doorknob too."

"The doorknob," Sora repeated, and I gasped.

"The doorknob, the one abo- whoa, dizzy alert," I did the one thing I didn't want to do; look up.

"What shadow," Matt asked looking around, and Goofy pointed to a latch in the wall.

"We need to back to the doorknob," Goofy said running towards the latch.

"Goofy, that's the first thing you said so far that made sense, come on guys," and Mark ran after Goofy.

…

A few minutes later we found ourselves back in the queen's courtyard; we carefully climbed down a set of vines and snuck past the queen's guards. When neither of the guards were looking we ran through the hole back to the room with the door, when all of us squeezed past the bed we saw the Cheshire Cat on the table.

"You'll have a better view from higher up," the cat said, "The shadows will be here soon."

"Oh no we have to climb the chair again, oh man," I muttered, as I placed one foot on the bar and climbed up.

By the time I made it up the others were just starting to make it to the cushion, so after a short awhile and after Sora and Goofy helped the others up, we turned to the cat.

The cat got up from his relaxed position and said, "The shadows are here now, are you prepared for the worst, if not too bad!"

The cat pointed up in the air and we looked up, and immediately regretted it. Above us was a Heartless, of the giant, deadly, variety, it hung on the ceiling for a bit, and then it leaped over our heads and landed in front us; it was the Trickmaster. The Trickmaster had spindly legs that when the hips began the legs looked like long tubes with joints on the knees, so when the legs bent they spread apart, like a giant spring, the arms and hands were in fact papery, the fingers were thin and wavy yet strangely strong enough to pick up some juggling clubs, the head was like someone stacked colorful oval boxes and added eyes and mouths on each box.

Staring at the Heartless, I muttered, "Oh boy."

_(Play, Attack, Masashi Hamauzu)_

The Trickmaster was the first to strike, he threw one of his clubs at us and we ducked out of the way, we summoned our Keyblades and Matt ran up and cast Blizzard. The ice magic slammed into the body of Trickmaster it wobbled a bit, but it did not go down, instead as it was standing upright it brought its hands over its head and leaned forward.

"Jump off the table, NOW," I yelled, leaping off the table and landing on the ground.

The others leaped off as well; Mark however jumped on its arms and flipped over its head, striking it as he passed. The Trickmaster flinched and swung around knocking Mark as he was falling; Mark hit the floor hard.

"Guh, no way, I hit it in the head," Mark gasped.

"Trickmaster is definitely resilient," I called out, "we might have better luck with magic than physical attacks."

Donald and Matt started casting Fire on the Heartless, it did a lot more damage than slices from our weapons were doing, the rest of us ran up and started to distract the Heartless from attacking Donald and Matt. Sora leaped on the chair and launched himself at the Trickmaster's head, striking it twice as he passed. Mark did a quick leap on the Trickmaster's leg and did another leap on his shoulder and struck the Trickmaster on the head and leaped away. I jumped up, ran on the creature's body and tried to strike as many of the faces as I could, but like we expected; all our hits didn't do much at all. However the point was us to distract it while Donald and Matt did the heavy lifting, until the Trickmaster caught on to our plan and threw his club; at Matt.

Matt took the hit and fell to the ground, Donald and Goofy yelled out in surprise, Sora yelled in rage, Mark and I felt cold.

We immediately ran over to Matt, the Trickmaster tried to throw his other club at us, but Goofy blocked them with his shield, the force caused Goofy to spin around and as he did he launched his shield, not hitting the Trickmaster, but the lamp next to it; causing the lamp to fall and slam into it.

The Trickmaster was currently trapped under the lamppost, as Goofy ran over to us I stopped and asked:

"Did you actually mean to hit that?"

Goofy caught his shield and said, "You know I actually did, guhuw."

I was amazed at the great amount of luck that Goofy possessed, but that didn't matter, Matt was unconscious and with Donald try to heal him we couldn't defeat the Trickmaster without magic. Just our luck the Trickmaster broke free of his prison and lumbered towards us, Sora looked at the Trcikmaster and back at Matt and growled.

Mark got up and said, "Michael attack from the side I'll-"

"No," Sora said, "I got him."

Sora ran a few feet forward, stopped, held out his Keyblade and yelled:

"BLIZZARD!"

The icy blue magic shot out of the Keyblade and stuck the Trickmaster on the head; the Trickmaster stumbled backwards and leaned on the giant woodstove for support. Sora ran forward again and kept casting Blizzard each time the icy blue magic hit the creature it would fall back and be unable to attack, however Sora was running out of power and soon he would be open for an attack.

"Donald can you hurry," I said, "Sora will soon be out of power."

Donald frowned, "I'm trying, but we need something a little stronger than a potion; but I'm the only one who knows curative magic!"

I growled, Sora ran back to dodge an attack from the Trickmaster, but the creature was advancing. I growled again, I swore to protect my brothers from the Heartless, but with Matt out, Donald focused on healing him and Sora almost out of power, we were in trouble.

And speaking of trouble; the Trickmaster had laced his clubs with fire and he threw one at us, then Mark ran forward, I saw something glowing from his hand and Mark held it out and yelled:

"Reflect!"

A magical shield appeared around him and when the club slammed on the shield it bounced back and slammed into the Trickmaster. The Trickmaster stumbled backwards and toppled onto the stove, but pretty soon he was on his feet and charging at us.

"Oh boy," I said, as the towering creature ran towards us.

I felt something in my pocket and I took it out; the crystal glowed bright yellow, I figured out what element it was, and what luck it is my favorite magic too.

"Thunder!"

A lighting bolt crashed from the sky and slammed onto the Trickmaster on the head, it staggered and we noticed it was weakening.

"We're almost there," I said.

"Then do you mind, I'd like a hit on it."

We turned around and saw Matt was on his feet, his Keyblade in his hand and he looked at the Trickmaster.

Then Matt ran toward it yelling, "Payback time!"

Matt jumped up in the air and he thrust his Keyblade out, as he was about to stab the chest Matt yelled:

"Thunder!"

The lighting bolt struck and just as the sword stabbed the Heartless, Matt let go just as the lighting bolt hit the Keyblade, the electricity coursed through the weapon and it burned the Heartless from the inside. The Trickmaster shuddered, and its legs began to wobble dangerously, then the Trickmaster fell. It fluttered like paper as it dissipated, leaving a giant heart that floated up in the sky.

_(End, Attack)_

"Is it done, is it finally gone," Mark asked, relief coursed through him at the thought of the Trickmaster gone.

But before any of us could answer we heard a shuddering yawn, we all turned around to see the doorknob was awake.

"What a racket," the doorknob moaned, "How's a doorknob supposed to get any sleep?"

The doorknob opened his mouth wide open, and when he did we saw something strange; in his mouth there was an outline of a keyhole, ironic it is a door after all. That's when something even stranger happened; Sora's Keyblade began to shudder, then it started to jerk away from him Sora could barely get a grip, and then when the Keyblade was out far enough a beam of light shot out and it entered the keyhole, there was a bright light and the sound of something being locked shut. The lights disappeared and the doorknob went to sleep, while the rest of us were amazed by what happened.

"What was that," Donald asked in awe.

"Splendid, you're all quite the heroes."

We whirled behind us and saw the Cheshire Cat standing behind us.

"Can you find Alice now," Mark asked, but the Cheshire Cat shook his head.

"If you're looking for Alice, she's not here anymore," The cat said.

"What," Matt asked, and the cat replied.

"She's gone, off with the shadows, into darkness."

Matt frowned and I couldn't resist asking now, "Hey Matt you were acting kind of weird earlier, are you okay?"

Matt shrugged, "Not really, maybe it's because Alice and I… are the same, in a sense."

I didn't say anything and Matt continued, "Her curiosity got her in trouble, will my bravery get all of us in trouble, like it did now?"

"Aww, don't feel so bad Matt," Goofy said, "You saved us from that Heartless right, it was because you were brave and wanted to make sure we're okay."

Matt smiled a little, "Yeah I guess you're right."

I chuckled inwardly, _gotta hand it to Goofy, he always knows what to say._

Sora pumped his fist determinedly, "We'll find her, if we travel the worlds while finding Riku, Kairi, and the King we might find Alice as well!"

"Okay," I responded and I noticed something on the ground, "Hey isn't that a Gummi Block?"

Donald and Goofy looked at each and picked it up, they examined it for a bit and put it away.

"We can use this Gummi Block to find another world," Goofy responded.

Donald straightened up and said, "Gummi Blocks are pieces of the great walls that kept the worlds separate, this Gummi will give the ship directions where to go next!"

"Hey, that piece of paper," Mark cried out.

When we looked there was a rolled up piece of paper bounded in a cord, Donald looked at it and cried out, "The Ansem reports!"

"The what," Sora asked.

Goofy smiled, "Aerith told us that a feller named Ansem made these reports about Heartless and why planets are disappearing, the King is looking for them too."

Mark, Matt, and I looked at each other, if they knew what really happened maybe they wouldn't be so eager to find Ansem.

…

Gummi Ship

Jiminy Cricket was finishing up the last sentences of what we explained to him, he closed his tiny notebook and sighed.

"All done, that was some adventure you guys had."

We nodded just as Sora and Donald came out of the cockpit and said, "Come on, we are going to insert the Gummi!"

"Wait, I'll be there in a minute," I said, and I headed to my room.

But when I entered I gasped, there was three duffel bags sitting on my bed all stuffed to the danger of breaking, then Mark and Matt came in.

"There are some bags in our rooms, and this," Mark announced holding out a letter.

I took the letter and read it:

_I thought you might want your belongings, I took what I could, each one of you have your own._

I looked inside my bag and sure enough; my DS was there, as well as my music cds and my toothbrush, I looked around some more and I groaned.

"What," Matt asked.

"He forgot my razor," I cried out, "I can't shave!"

Mark and Matt giggled at the thought of me with a mustache, I growled and they ran off.

We walked after them, but I stopped because something has been bothering me for awhile.

"Hey Donald, you said the King mentioned us, why?"

Donald reached in his pocket and took out a letter with King Mickey's seal, "It says right here."

I took the letter and Mark and Matt stood next to me and we looked at the letter:

_Hey Donald,_

_Sorry for leaving so quickly, but trouble is a brewing. The stars are blinking out one by one and that only means trouble, there is someone with a key the key a key to our survival, so I want you and Goofy to find him and stick with him. You also need to find three brothers that share the name Fri, their knowledge would prove infallible against the Darkness for they are special in ways we could not imagine, go to Traverse Town and find Leon he will point you in the right direction._

_P.S. Do you think you can apologize to Minnie for me, thanks pal._

We reread the letter many times to make sure that what it said was correct, the three of us looked at each other and I sighed.

"Things are defiantly more complicated than they need to be."

* * *

That's it, many questions are left unanswered, but they will uncover in time. Next up, Olympus Coliseum. 


	5. A Hero's Trial

Disclaimer: If only we owned KH, but we don't so oh well.

* * *

Gummi Ship

Matt's POV

Chapter 5

A Hero's Trial

* * *

"Who does this song again?" I heard Sora ask, as the music blared from the speakers.

Michael chuckled, "Linkin Park."

Sora frowned a little, "Never heard of them."

"I'm not surprised," Mark muttered.

Somehow we convinced Donald to play one of our music CDs in the Gummi Ship, Sora was getting the hang of the music, Donald was stubbornly resistant (although I swear I saw him tap his foot a little), Goofy however was totally into the beat of Linkin Park, he bopped his head and he even played air guitar, man was Goofy fun to be with.

"I didn't know Goofy played air guitar," Mark said, as Goofy did the guitar riff while I did drums.

"Who cares," Michael said, as he played air guitar as well.

After awhile of Linkin Park jamming Donald finally said, "Could you guys stop for a minute, there's this red light on the dashboard and it's blinking faster!"

We all stopped and stared at the dashboard, sure enough there was a red blinking light and after awhile it stopped… and then all of sudden Cid's face appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh my gosh it's… it's… BLOND UGLY MAN!"

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

"BLOND UGLY WHAT?! THAT'S IT YOU LITTLE PUNK I'LL-"

"Um Cid, why are you here?" Sora asked nervously, trying to stop Cid from yelling at us.

Cid stopped for a minute, "Huh? Oh right yeah anyway, I installed this in a little earlier, Donald told me that you guys found one of Ansem's reports, there is a portal device that I installed to send the reports."

Michael took the page from his coat pocket and placed it in the tray, in a few minutes it disappeared and Aerith appeared on the screen holding a page of the report.

"I'll try and decipher the pages, or at least find out what the contents are," Aerith said, waving at us.

We all waved back at the same time, which earned a few glances from each other, and then another voice was heard from the monitor.

"Oh is that the boys? Is Michael with them?"

Mark went pale, Michael blushed red, I just stared in shock, and Sora and the others just tilted their heads.

Then as we figured Yuffie appeared on the screen, "Oh hey guys, how's it hanging?"

Sora responded, "Oh nothing much here, what about you?"

Yuffie smiled back, "Boring, wish I was with you guys."

Michael rubbed his nose, and coughed, "Hey um, we're approaching a world now, so we have to take off."

"Oh okay," Yuffie said, her smile slightly faded, "Talk to you guys later!"

"Good luck you guys," Cid nodded.

The screen clicked off and Mark asked, "Were we really approaching a world?"

Sora pointed ahead of him, "We are now."

The world that was coming up was the world known as Olympus Coliseum, and Michael decided to say something about that.

"Hey guys, the king said something about us having a lot of knowledge that would help you, well we happen to know that this world is called Olympus Coliseum."

"You do?" Sora asked, "Really?"

"Just the name of the worlds, that's it," Michael said.

Olympus Coliseum, a world where the gods of Olympus host royal battles pitting heroes against monsters, and we were about to head right into them.

* * *

Olympus Coliseum

Mark's POV

We pushed open the doors and soon came face to face with a giant stadium entrance; long columns were next to the entrance of the stadium and two giant gold statues of a man holding a sword in the air.

"Whoa," Sora gasped, "That's the coliseum?"

"Yep," Michael nodded, "I bet the stadium is even bigger."

I paused to think about that, "A big stadium… hmmm."

Our faces lit up at the thought of grand battles, and we immediately ran for the entrance and opened the doors.

The reception area- was disappointedly small and simple, it was a square room with a heavy block on the side of the room. There was only one other person in the room, and he wasn't technically a person, his name was Phil a half man half goat, I can't exactly remember the name for it.

Sora went up to him and was about to say something when Phil said something first.

"Hey good timing, move that pedestal over there," Phil gestured over to a giant stone pedestal over in the corner, "I gotta get this place spruced up for the games."

Phil seemed to think that Sora was someone else, because if he took one glance at Sora he would realize that he chose the wrong guy for the job. However Sora didn't think so and he went right over and tried to push the stone pedestal, he gave the biggest shove he could and he still couldn't move it an inch, he finally gave up and went over to Phil and said.

"It's way too heavy."

Suddenly Phil started laughing, "What? Too heavy? Since when have you been such a little-,"

Phil turned around and when he saw he was talking to he stopped and sighed.

"Oh, wrong guy, what are you doing here?"

Phil jumped off the stand he was on and walked over to us.

"This here is the world famous Coliseum, _heroes_ only and I got my hands full preparing for the games, so run along pip-squeaks."

Michael laughed, "That's funny coming from your mouth Phil."

Phil paused and sighed, "Look it's like this: heroes are coming all over to fight ferocious monsters here in the Coliseum."

Suddenly Donald decides to say something, "You've got heroes standing right in front of you!"

"Yep," Goofy smiled, then he pushed Sora, Michael, Matt, and I in front of Phil.

"They are real heroes chosen by the Keyblade," Goofy puts his hands on Sora's shoulders.

Then Donald steps up and says, "And we're heroes too!"

Phil pauses and then breaks out in laughter, "Heroes? Those runts?!"

Sora starts to get offended and says, "What's so funny, we fought a bunch of monsters."

Matt pauses and says, "Um, technically we only fought-,"

In a quick minute I covered Matt's mouth and whispered sharply, "Shh, let Sora speak."

Phil continues to laugh as he walks over to the pedestal.

"Hey if can't even move this-," Phil tries to push the giant stone pedestal, the key word is _try_.

Phil grunts as he tries to push the pedestal, "… You can't… call yourself… a hero!"

Phil falls over from the strain and pants heavily as he sees our smirking faces.

"Ok so it takes more than brawn, well let's see what you can do," Phil points to Sora, "You can represent your buddies, head into the coliseum and if you win I might let you'll get something."

Sora nodded and he went inside, Donald and Goofy followed him while we decided to wait in the lobby.

And after awhile of waiting I got bored and decided to strike a conversation with everyone else.

"I haven't got any sleep in days."

Michael gave me a look, "You've had plenty of time to rest, what were you doing all that time?"

I decided to leave out the part on how I spent three hours trying to explain to Sora the basic plot of Legend of Zelda, and I shook my head rapidly.

"Forget it never mind, and… what, what are you looking at?"

Michael's jaw dropped, Matt eye's widened and I was just confused, I turned around and found myself speechless, standing right behind me was Kairi.

Kairi smiled and said, "Hi boys."

_(Play: Kairi, Yoko Shimomura)_

I don't think I've ever been this speechless before, well there was that one time where Michael actually told me he had a date, but that was another set of memories not worth going back too.

"Kairi," Michael said, Kairi nodded and looked out at the coliseum.

"Boys and their swords," Kairi said, looking at Sora as he was completing the tests Phil set out to him.

Matt regained enough effort to yell, "Hey!"

Michael gave Matt a smack on the head, and I turned to Kairi.

"How can we see you?"

Kairi paused, "Maybe… because you're different, those weapons only go to someone special right, there's your answer."

"I think it's a little more than that," Michael frowned.

Kairi frowned slightly and tilted her head, "Oh? Then what would it be?"

None of us knew the answer to that question unfortunately; we all just stood there at a loss for words, Kairi looked down on the ground and said.

"Hey guys… could you look after Sora for me?"

I nodded automatically and so did the other two, Kairi smiled and walked out to the coliseum.

"Wait!" I yelled, and we ran after her to the coliseum.

The three of us entered the stadium itself, but the only people there were Phil, Donald, Goofy, and Sora.

_(End: Kairi)_

I stood there trying to know what to do with this information, when a voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Where is the registration?"

"Um that way," I said absentmindedly, I think I also pointed the wrong way.

"That's the bathroom."

Yep, I pointed the wrong way, when I turned around I gasped. Standing behind me was Cloud Strife, the hero of FFVII, and has a massive sword; you do not want to be on the receiving end of a massive blade. He stood there with a confused look on his face as I stared at him; he shrugged and walked off towards Phil who was showing Sora what to do for the test. We stood there for awhile and then without another word we went back into the coliseum.

After awhile Sora came back in with Donald and Goofy, Phil also came in as well, he seemed to be impressed with Sora's results.

"Hey kid, you ain't half bad," Phil acknowledged, and Sora grinned openly.

"Looks like I'm heading for the games!" Sora cheered, but I could sense a 'but' on the whims.

"No quite," Phil said, and Sora's face went into a frown.

"Why not!" He shouted, even Donald suddenly looked upset.

Phil held up two fingers, "Two words."

He began to list the words while Goofy and Matt counted them off, "You guys ain't heroes!"

"Come on!" Sora shouted, and Matt glared.

"Yeah Phil… that was FOUR words, not two!"

Everyone stared at Matt and he coughed quietly, "Just a professional obser….something."

Michael sighed, "'Observation'?"

"Yeah! Obser…. what you said!" Matt nodded, and we both lowered our heads.

Phil shook his head, "You guys want to be heroes? Master these spells."

Phil took out some magic crystals and handed me one, and gave the others to Sora and Michael. Feeling there was nothing else to do, we were going to turn and leave when I noticed Sora was already gone. We were going to follow him when we heard a familiar voice.

"Who's my first match?"

I turned around and saw it was Cloud, he stood there with his back turned to us and Phil was double checking a list of sorts.

"Cloud… Cloud… ah, here you are. You will be fighting Shadow Flux, good luck," Phil nodded.

Cloud smirked, "Luck is nothing, just skill."

Michael frowned, "What a fruit cake."

Cloud stopped, "What?"

Now I knew insulting Cloud was not a good idea, however Michael didn't seem to share the same thoughts.

"You act like everything is lower than you," Michael retorted, "That no one stands a chance against you, well you're wrong."

Cloud remained silent, and Michael just sighed, "The day you think you're invincible is the day where you get cut down, be wary of that day Cloud."

Cloud smirked, "Huh, interesting advice. I'll keep it in mind… when I beat you."

Apparently Cloud seemed to think that we were in the tournament, but before I could correct him Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran in holding a slip of paper.

"I've got it! I've got a hero's pass!" Sora whooped, waving the piece of paper around.

Cloud looked at Sora and back at us, "Well then, I'll see you in the tournament."

Michael frowned, "You chose the wrong side Cloud."

Cloud's face was impassive, and then he turned around and started walking away.

"Wait we can help you!" I yelled, and Cloud stopped.

Cloud smirked, "You should be saving it, for yourselves."

I frowned as Cloud walked off, "Great, you made Cloud angry."

Michael frowned, "Cloud has delved into darkness, and we have to bring him out before he's long gone."

"You do know you probably just made our death beds?" I asked angrily.

Michael paused, and then he said, "It doesn't matter; we're going to end up fighting him either way; with or without my statement."

"Who will say he won't run us through though, will be dead!" I yelled.

"Mark… there will be many other times that we will be killed, and if we continue to run from them in the end we'll just be in the way."

"That's not the point!" I yelled, "You're going to get us killed, what are you going to do now, huh?!"

Michael smirked, "Me? I'm going to fight, because if you forgot already Sora is going to, and Cloud is currently in employment of a certain blue flamed evil monster, and he will ask Cloud to kill Sora during the tournament. Everything is so far playing to what it is, but there's bound to be this one thing that goes wrong, and I'm not going to screw up like we did when we tried to save Kairi remember?"

I couldn't really respond to that, so I just glared and walked away.

* * *

We were split into three teams; Sora, Donald, and Goofy were together, while I was with Matt and Michael. The three of us entered the arena to get ready with our first fight, the three of us summoned our Keyblades and then the Heartless appeared.

_(Play: FFX Normal Battle, Masashi Hamauzu) _

Five Shadows and three Fire type Heartless, against the three of us; yeah it was going to be tough, but Matt had the first half taken care of.

"Blizzard!" Matt yelled, and the icy magic flew towards the fire type Heartless.

The Blizzard spell hit one of them, but the other two dodged it and the both cast Fire at Michael and Matt. Michael leaped out of the way and Matt countered with his own Fire spell, I ran forward and jump sliced a Shadow Heartless, only to have one claw me on the back.

I drank a potion and I felt the wound heal up, I turned and saw Michael had already defeated a Shadow Heartless.

The Fire type Heartless floated right in front of Michael and was charging up a Fire spell, when Michael's hand began to glow blue, he held it up and yelled.

"Blizzard!"

The ice magic slammed into the fire Heartless and defeated it instantly, I realized Michael already learned his second spell, and I still only had Reflect.

But I had a chance to use it when the last Fire type Heartless fired a fire spell at me, I reflected it and it flew towards a Shadow type Heartless and destroyed it. Matt ran forward and destroyed one and blocked an attack from the last one, he pushed it back and as the Heartless fell Michael sliced it like hitting a baseball with a bat. I couldn't believe we did it, but we won our first battle in the tournament.

_(End: FFX Normal Battle)_

* * *

Yeah this seems like a really bad way to start the day, and it was only about to get worse. Michael was right about one thing; battles are a hero's trial, but only if you come out of it intact. And that's what we were all hoping, to come out intact, and the next few battles were about to get worse.

* * *

Please review, but no Flames. 


	6. The SOLDIER and the Hellhound

Disclaimer:…huh? Oh right. We don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Now for reviews:

Mentality at its Worse: Phil does have his mess ups, most of the time it's funny.

Count X. Gamlxltoe Nighmare: Thanks.

Biohazard 4: No, no fighting, it would take a lot to get these brotehrs to draw Keyblades on each other. On and on a note: Matt's fic is almost ready, but Michael keeps forgetting to edit for him.

Plot for Chapter 6 by: Michael, Mark, and Matt Fri.

Written by: Michael Fri.

* * *

Chapter 6

The SOLDIER and the Hellhound.

Olympus Coliseum

Mark's POV cont.

"That's it guys! You have them on the run!" Phil shouted from the stands as the three of us continued to fight of our…third? Yeah, third match here.

I ran forward and sliced two Shadow Heartless while Matt and Michael battled a Fat Body, although I was still a little angry at Michael I had more pressing matters to think about, like surviving.

After I defeated few Ice type Heartless I saw Michael and Matt had a little trouble with the Fat Body, so I lifted my Keyblade on my shoulders and ran forward to help them out.

"NO!" Michael bellowed at me, "THIS PIECE OF CRAP IS MINE, RETRIBUTION!!"

Michael lifted his Keyblade in the air and a single yellow light touched the Keyblade, the Keyblade glowed yellow and Michael charged forward and sliced upwards at the Heartless, the Fat Body flung backwards and crashed on the other side of the ring. Then something odd happened; Michael fell on one knee and began to yell out in pain, instinctively I ran over as the Fat Body got up and lumbered towards Michael. However Matt beat me to it, he stood in front of Michael as his body began to glow with energy.

"Anima Overload!" Matt yelled as one light blue wing and one bright red wing appeared on his back.

Matt's body began to cover itself in an elemental armor of sorts, he became covered in an Aero chest armor, his gauntlets were an electrical based energy, and his two wings were obviously Fire and Blizzard elements. Matt's right hand glowed bright red and when he held it out multiple fireballs shot out and slammed into the Fat Body, soon the Fat Body couldn't take anymore and it faded from the barrage of fire. With the last Heartless defeated Phil declared us the winners of the match and we took Michael back to the lobby, when we entered the lobby we saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy there waiting for us.

"Hey guys," Sora smiled, not noticing a limping Michael, "How did— Michael?!"

"What happened?" Goofy asked as we set Michael on a chair.

"During the match Michael must have got hurt," I said, but Michael made an odd noise.

"No… I wasn't hit once during the fight," Michael panted, and Phil had just came in when he said it and nodded.

"He's right kid, he never took a hit," Phil sighed, and Donald pulled out his staff.

"Well I'll heal him, it shouldn't be a problem," Donald said and he cast a Cure spell on him.

I saw the curative magic wash over him, but he was still panting heavily and Donald looked confused.

"I don't get it, he should be feeling better…" Donald frowned, "Maybe you should sit out the next match?"

"No!" Michael countered, "I'll be fine, just let me rest a bit."

"Are you sure?" Sora asked and Michael nodded again.

"Yeah I'm sure, I just need a moment," Michael sighed.

Phil nodded, "I like your thinking, don't worry your next match isn't for awhile. You're supposed to fight some guy here… or your three friends here."

We all looked at Sora, Donald, and Goofy and frowned; I didn't think we would be fighting them in the tournament, but it would be a fun match though.

"Who's the other opponent though?" Michael asked, and Phil checked his list.

"Um… Cloud," Phil answered.

At that Michael shot out of his chair and bellowed, "CLOUD?!"

"Whoa! Whoa!" I yelled at Michael, "Who had just hurt yourself a bit ago, sit down!"

Michael hesitated and finally he sat back down and he sighed, "Hey Sora… go beat Cloud ok?"

Sora paused and he smiled a bit, "Ok, I'll look forward to fighting you guys."

Matt smiled too, "Oh yeah, I'll forward to dooling you?"

Michael and I sighed and Michael said, "Don't you mean 'Dueling'?"

Matt frowned, "Oh right, dualing."

We didn't bother on correcting Matt this time, however we both knew one thing: Sora can't lose against Cloud, because if he didn't win, Sora would be losing more than just the tournament.

* * *

There was a small rest before the next match, the six of us decided to spend it outside in front of the coliseum with a few bottles of water. Except for Michael, he had his Keyblade out and he seemed to be trying to hit some preset targets he had Phil set up. Sora watched his training display with a frown; finally he looked at me and decided to voice his mind.

"I'm a little worried about Michael."

"Yeah," I nodded, "I noticed he seems to be pushing himself a lot more lately. I wonder what's on his mind?"

"Gee, why don't you ask him what's wrong?" Goofy asked, taking a sip of water.

"It's a little harder than that Goofy," I frowned.

"Why not?" Sora asked me, his face seemed to show confusion at this.

I really didn't know how to answer this one, "Well…. You see… even though we have a good friendship he, uh…. Look he clearly needs to blow off some steam!"

Donald gulped down his water and he frowned, "That's not all what's wrong."

"Could we stop talking about Michael and focus on the next fight?" I asked, but it seems like no one heard me.

"Yuffie told me in Traverse Town that when Michael saved her he said something like; 'I'm not weak!' what did he mean by that?" Donald asked Matt and I.

"That's none of your business!" I cut him off, "That's a family matter!"

Matt and I exchanged glances, both of us knew what happened to Michael was a touchy subject; even today it is hard for him to talk about it. Everyone else seemed to have got the message because they didn't ask anything after that. However Michael seemed to have heard me yell my last sentence, because he walked over to us and sat down on the steps next to us.

"What's with the yelling?" Michael asked, taking a drink of his water bottle.

"Nothing important," Matt stated simply, however there was a slight nervousness in his voice.

Michael sighed, he didn't seem to be in a mood to pry any deeper in a subject. The six of us sat there on the steps taking sips of water, we kind of sat there enjoying the day before the next battle. After awhile the double doors to the coliseum opened and Phil stepped outside.

"Hey Sora, Donald, Goofy, your match with Cloud is ready," Phil motioned to the doors.

Sora nodded and the three of them got up and walked for the double doors, Donald and Goofy stepped through but Sora hung back a bit and smiled.

"Hey, if we end up fighting each other, let's do our best ok?"

I nodded and Sora walked through the double doors, the doors swung shut, leaving the three of us outside. Then Michael got up and walked to the side of the coliseum, his Keyblade was drawn and he seemed to be edging slightly towards a door on the side of the wall.

"Um, what are you—," I began to ask, however Michael had answered my question when he opened the door to the side of the coliseum and walked inside.

I waited for a few minutes, but it didn't look like he was coming back out so Matt and I set our water bottles down, drew our Keyblades, and followed after him.

* * *

The door Michael went through led into a hallway that had slate colored walls, the only source of light was the light of the sun peaking through some cage bars, and a blast of cold air washed over us both, chilling my skin and making me want to stay out in the hot sun. But of course against my better judgment I walked inside after Michael, who seemed to have disappeared, or he had just walked further ahead. When I approached the cage bars and looked outside them I was met with a site; on the other side of the bars was the battle ring, where I saw Sora dodge a strike from a giant blade being used by a man with blonde spiky hair: a.k.a. Cloud Strife.

"I think we're in the outer edges of the stadium," Matt stated the obvious.

I simply nodded and pried my eyes from the match and continued down the hall, after a short while I saw Michael with his back pressed against the stone wall, he made a shushing gesture and motioned for me and Matt to come over here. We edged over to the side of the wall and Michael motioned for me to peer across the corner, I slowly moved my head to look around the wall in front of me and I saw someone: he wore a darkish robe that slung over one of his shoulders, his skin was a dark blue which nearly blended with his dark robe, he had no hair on his head but in it's place were bright blue flames, if I had to hazard a guess at who he is I would have said that this guy is Hades, Lord of the Dead.

Hades seemed to be watching the match that was going on in the coliseum with great interest, but then his face etched into a frown and he growled.

"Ah… I knew he was going to be too soft, he had an opening to kill the kid and instead he ignored it. It looks like I'm going to have to bring in Plan B," Hades chuckled.

From behind Hades there was a low growl, then six red glowing eyes were seen from the darkness, followed by a tremendous roar.

"Cerberus," Michael chuckled softly, "Hades' three headed lap dog, literally."

I tried not to look at the glowing eyes, because for a moment I was afraid they would have seen me. I was still curious of Michael's intentions, but I heard a yell, a cry of agony! I ran back towards the cage bars and saw Sora on his knees; Cloud raised his sword above his head, poised to strike. I watched anxiously hoping Sora would raise his Keyblade in time, but it didn't look like Sora was strong enough to even get up. Cloud saw this and normally a bad guy would take advantage of this, but instead he lowered his weapon and just then I heard the cage bars open. I wondered why the cage bars would open during a coliseum match when it hit me; Hades was about to release Cerberus!

Just then I saw Michael make a mad dash across the field, just as Cerberus was stepping outside. I saw Cerberus raise his paw to attack Cloud like in the game, but the game didn't have Michael in it: Michael had tackled Cloud out of the way before the paw could step on him. Sora yelled out and gasped as Cerberus lumbered towards him, just then someone ran out on the battle field and stopped the other paw from crushing Sora; he had orange hair, dark brown chest armor, he was the very look and symbol for a strong hero, I mean hey he's Hercules.

"Herc!" Phil called out.

Hercules turned to Phil and yelled, "Phil! Get them out of here!"

Hercules threw the paw off him and Cerberus launched its heads forward and opened them to bite him, until Matt ran up and cast a Blizzard spell in its mouth. The spell formed a giant icicle in its mouth and forced one of the head's jaws open.

"I'm fighting!" Matt yelled, getting into his battle stance.

I nodded and summoned my Keyblade, "You better believe I'm fighting!"

Michael and got up and summoned his Keyblade as well, "So we're fighting Cerberus huh… bring it on."

Sora, Donald and Goofy drew their weapons too and ran forward to stand with us, Hercules stood by us as well.

"Cerberus is tough, you'll need the help of a true hero!" Hercules warned.

The seven of us stood in front of Cerberus when another voice was heard, even from the roars of the three-headed hellhound.

"Mind if I join you?"

The seven us turned around and saw Cloud behind us, his Buster Sword in his right hand as he walked up to stand next to us. He raised his Buster Sword in front of him and settled into his battle stance, I nodded and turned to face Cerberus when I heard Phil's voice from the stands.

"Guys, I have two words of advice for you: attack!"

Matt looked back at Phil and yelled, "Phil! That's one word!"

"Does that really matter now?!" Michael yelled as Cerberus gave a mighty bellow, signaling the beginning of the battle.

_(Play: The 13__th__ Struggle (KHII Version), Yoko Shimomura)_

Cerberus was the first one to strike; one of the heads shot forward and tried to snap its jaws at us. But Hercules was faster; he ran forward and grabbed the head, preventing it from getting closer. However the other two heads had other plans; one of them shot out a ball of Fire energy while the second lunged for Hercules.

I jumped in front of the fireball and yelled, "Reflect!"  
The Reflect spell bounced the fireball off back towards the head, it slammed into the head and the head shook it off. As for the other head, Cloud had jumped forward and swung his Buster Sword at the third head, the force of blade flung the head backwards.

The other head pulled away from Cloud and it let out a roar of fury, then he spun around and knocked everyone back with its tail. I leapt back on my feet and saw Sora raise his Keyblade and call out a spell.

"Thunder!"

The lightning magic met its mark and slammed into one of Cerberus's heads, Michael grinned and yelled.

"Two can play at that game: Thunder!"

Michael's Thunder spell also hit one of Cerberus's heads and dazed the mighty dog, but it seemed the hellhound had other plans. It reared its heads back and then looked right at the ground, spewing a dark substance out on the ground, I remembered what it was and immediately began to run.

"Everyone start running, don't stop until the black goo is gone!" I warned, as small bursts of dark energy shot out of the ground chasing after all of us.

Matt had decided to run up to Cerberus and leap on its back, and then he took his Keyblade and began to hack at the middle head. Cerberus howled in annoyance and began to shake his head, trying to throw Matt off. Matt had indeed fell off and he landed right in front of the giant dog, Cerberus growled and pulled all three of its heads back slightly. It was going to rip Matt to shreds!

I started to run forward but Michael had rushed past me, he ran in front of Cerberus and as the three heads struck Michael held his Keyblade out… and blocked the attack! I almost stopped in my place, three massive heads and simultaneously attacked and Michael blocked it?! That was impossible!

I wasted no time in pondering for I jumped forward and rapidly attacked the heads, swinging my Keyblade in fluid motions I attacked the three heads, backing them away from Michael and Matt. Then I saw Hercules leap up in the air and slam on the creature's back, Donald ran up and cast Blizzard spells on the heads, preventing it from shooting out fireballs. Goofy ran up and tossed his shield and the center head, the shield slammed right between the eyes, earning a mighty bellow from Cerberus. Cloud jumped from the stands and struck the center head as he fell, causing the creature to stumble and spin once again, backing off anyone close to it.

Cerberus turned to us and growled, then he leaped into the air and he was about to crush us!

"Oh no…" I muttered weakly.

Michael grabbed Matt and I and yelled, "Chaos Control!"

One minute I was about to be crushed by a giant dog, next I'm sitting on the viewer stands on the left side of the stadium. I clutched my shoulder and noticed a cut on it about the size of my forefinger; I took my other hand and ran it over the cut, muttering my newfound spell.

"Cure," I said, and the mystical green light healed up my wound.

"I've had enough of this!" Michael yelled, "Retribution!"

Michael raised his Keyblade and the single beam of light connected with it, causing his Keyblade to glow brightly. Michael ran forward, leaped in the air, and slashed the three heads with the energized weapon, Cerberus howled and started lumbering after Michael, who had turned around the moment Cerberus started to lumber at him. Before Cerberus could get any closer to Michael, Sora ran up and leaped towards the heads, he jumped off the right head that tried to bite him and slashed the center head right between the eyes. Cerberus stumbled and began to slide towards Michael, who nimbly leaped out of the way, unlike Cerberus who slammed into the wall.

"Hah! Take that you Supernatural reject!" I yelled, which caused everyone to stop and stare at me.

"D-don't you get it? He's a hellhound, the show Supernatural had hellhounds and they… they…" I realized that all I was doing was making them think that I was nothing but a weirdo, so I pointed towards Cerberus (who was just getting up) and yelled, "THREE HEADED DOG!"

Everyone turned their attention towards the now standing hellhound and raised their weapons, Cerberus seemed to have had enough of kidding around and unleashed its most powerful attack: One head shot out the giant fireballs, the second head spewed the darkish material again, the third head's eyes glowed and the darkish material shot out of the ground and merged with the fireball. The darkish fireball slammed into the ground causing a massive explosion and sending all of us backwards, it felt like three sledgehammers slammed me as I muttered a Cure spell and stood back up.

"Michael!" I heard Cloud yell.

I turned my head towards Cloud's voice and when the dust cleared I felt like I was in a nightmare. Michael was lying on the floor, a piece of shrapnel buried in his shoulder, blood pouring out of the wound.

"No!" Sora yelled, and he ran over towards Michael.

Donald and Goofy ran over as well, Matt gave a yell of rage and he and Hercules ran towards Cerberus. I ran over to Michael as well, I had enough energy to cast one last Cure spell and I had to make it count. I focused the curative magic on his shoulder when I removed the piece of shrapnel from it, the magic closed up the wound but Michael was still unconscious.

Cloud stood up and glared at Cerberus, he raised his Buster Sword and yelled, "I'm ending this right now!"

Cloud's sword began to glow brightly, he ran up towards Cerberus and leaped in the air and called out what had to be his most powerful move.

"Omislash!"

Then Cloud began rapidly attacking the heads with an inhuman speed, I counted at least 7 hits already and he was still going! Finally Cloud leaped off the middle head and into the air, he hovered a bit, but then he fell right towards Cerberus and as he fell he dealt one final blow to it.

Cerberus began to roar weakly and then with one last bellow it fell over, unable to take any more brutal punishment. The battle was over, and the only injury was my older brother, what only seemed like so long ago that I was worried that he might be getting us in trouble. It didn't seem to matter anymore.

_(End: The 13__th__ Struggle (KHII Version))_

* * *

A few minutes later we were standing in the lobby, Michael's arm had healed up and he was fully conscious. Phil was standing on a small podium with Hercules right beside him; Phil took out a scroll and read off the parchment.

"Thus I herby dub thee Junior Heroes—,"

"Hey whaddya mean Junior Heroes?!" Donald snapped.

Phil gave a little laugh and said, "You rookies still don't have what it takes to be a true hero."

"What does it take?" Goofy asked.

"Well, that's something you need to figure out on yourselves, just the way I did," Hercules explained.

"Ok, we'll start by proving ourselves in the games!" Sora pumped his fist, however Phil just frowned.

"It doesn't look like they'll be any games for awhile, still gotta clean up from the last mess."

"Ok, we'll come back later," Sora shrugged, "See you soon!"

"Yep!" Goofy smiled, "See ya next tornu…u… uh oh."

I whirled around and stared at Goofy, who had just did a 'Matt Fri' and mispronounced a word.

Michael sighed, "The curse has spread."

Matt gave an evil chuckle and the six of us walked out of the coliseum, when we stepped outside we saw Cloud sitting on the steps in front of the World Exit. We walked up to him and Sora stopped in front of him.

"Hey, are you ok?" Sora asked.

"I guess," Cloud responded, resting his arms on his legs and placing his hands on his chin.

"Hey, why did you work for that guy anyway?" Sora asked.

We had spent a few minutes after the battle telling Sora about Cloud being in Hades' employment, as well as Cloud's mission in the tournament.

Cloud sighed, "I was looking for someone, Hades promised he would help."

"And the dark powers?" I asked.

"I tried to exploit the powers of darkness, but I went in too deep and I almost lost the sight of the light," Cloud explained.

"I'm searching too," Sora said as Cloud stood up.

"For your light?" Cloud asked, when Sora nodded he reached into his pocket, pulled out two items, and he handed them to Sora as he said, "Don't lose sight of it."

Cloud walked past Sora and stopped in front of Michael, "You… you need to let go."

"What?" Michael asked.

"Whatever happened to you," Cloud explained, "Let it go."

Then without another word Cloud walked past Michael and he headed of towards the coliseum.

"Hey!" Sora called out to Cloud, "How about rematch next time, no dark powers involved?"

Cloud turned his head to look at Sora and responded with, "I think I'll pass."

"Gosh I hope he finds his light," Goofy frowned, watching Cloud walk in the coliseum.

"He will," I answered, "He just needs to look hard enough."

"Yeah," Sora nodded, "Maybe you can find your light too Michael."

Michael folded his arms and frowned, "I don't have one."

"What?" Donald gasped, "No light? Why?"

Michael scoffed and he walked towards the World Exit, he stopped in front of the entrance and said, "I gave my light to someone, but all I got was darkness."

"Huh?" Sora asked.

Michael didn't clarify on that, he just walked through the door and to the Gummi Ship.

_Michael… Cloud's right, you need to let go. _I thought as I entered the Gummi Ship along with the others.

* * *

Gummi Ship

Michael's POV

I entered my room and closed the door, wincing as I sat down on the bed. My shoulder still burned a little from the piece of shrapnel that was lodged in my shoulder, but it was healing nonetheless. I didn't anticipate that move from Cerberus, and in result I got hurt from it.

_But… what if next time it was Mark who got hit? Or Matt, or Sora, or Goofy, or even Donald? _I thought as I removed my shirt and slipped on an undershirt.

"Damn it!" I yelled, "I'm not trying hard enough!"

I lay down on my bed and stretched my arms out on my pillow; I closed my eyes and tried to imagine rain hitting the window instead of space rocks. Whenever I needed to rest I would imagine the soft pitter-patter of rain on my window, it was soothing and relaxing and helps me fall asleep. However my thoughts kept drifting back to Cloud's words: _You need to let go, _he said to me, but how would he understand what happened to me? How could anyone?

_Because you don't want them to? _My inner voice suggested.

_They don't need to know_, I argued.

However my inner voice brought up something important, _do you really think you can do everything alone?_

_Yes! _I argued, _I have to; Mark and Matt will die if I can't do anything about it!_

_Don't fool yourself, _My inner voice noted, _this is not about Mark and Matt, this is about you trying to prove to yourself that you're not weak._

_I'm not! _I protested to myself.

_And you believe by not confiding to everyone about what happened to you, by keeping every emotion to yourself, would be the best way to go about this? _My inner voice asked.

_Yes, _I answered, _I can do it. I don't need help._

_Everyone needs help Michael, even you. _My inner voice countered.

But I was stubborn too, _Not me._

_So you truly don't think you need a light? _

…_No._

_You don't sound so sure._

_I'm sure._

_Your friends don't think so; Mark and Matt don't either, and what about Yuffie?_

_Why should I care about Yuffie?_

…_Now you're fooling yourself._

I didn't want to answer myself that, so I just rolled over to my side, closed my eyes, and fell asleep.

* * *

That's it! We hope you like it, next up: Deep Jungle. 


	7. Deep Anxiety

**Disclaimer: Square Enix owns KH, we don't.**

Now for the reviews:

Sakura the cherry alchemist: Thank you.

Count X. Gamlxltoe Nightmare: Yeah... good luck with that.

Alex Rider: Chapter 3 is one we look back with fond memories, glad you like it.

LoneBusterWolf: Glad to please the warriors soul, hope we continue to make good battle scenes.

Mentality at its Worst: Michael's having it rough, it get easier for him either.

Chapter plot by: Michael, Mark, and Matt Fri.

Written by: Michael Fri

Edited by: ShadowFox123

* * *

Chapter 7: Deep Anxiety

Gummi Ship

Michael's POV

No… not this dream…

"_Michael… Michael, what happened?"_

Please not this dream…

"_Why? Why can't I be happy?"_

I don't want to… I don't want to see it again!

"_Michael! Michael, what have you done?!"_

I'm sorry… please, please god, please forgive me…

"_Michael! Michael!"_

Just leave me alone…

"_Michael! Michael!"_

* * *

"Leave me alone!!!!" 

I woke up from my nightmare in a cold sweat and panting heavily, I try to catch my breath as I settle down from the initial fear. This has only been the first of several nightmares I've been having ever since I left Traverse Town, it was getting to the point where I am afraid of even closing my eyes. I swung my legs over the covers and sat up, burying my head in my hands, trying to force back tears. I glanced at the clock and did a mental check to guess how long it has been since I left Olympus; two hours, at least, maybe more.

Then I received a little jolt when someone knocked at my door, I walked over and pulled the door open to reveal Sora. He regarded my look of panic, and he frowned.

"Hey are you ok?" He asked me, I nodded automatically, which only caused him to frown even more.

"I'm all right, ok, Sora?" I reassured, but he seemed to have ignored me.

"Donald inserted the Gummi into the computer, he says we're getting closer to the destination and told me to get you," Sora explained, "Get your shirt and meet us at the cockpit."

I nodded and shut the door after that, swiftly walking over to the chair and slipping on my shirt and jacket. I reopened the door and walked down the metal hallway towards the cockpit. When I made it to the cockpit, I noticed Mark and Matt were already there, and Donald was steadily guiding the ship towards a greenish dot ahead of us.

"Hey, look at that planet," Sora pointed, "We should check it out."

"What?" Donald scoffed, "This backwater planet? No thanks, we're skipping it."

"But Riku and Kairi could be there!" Sora protested.

"Donald," I interrupted, "I think we should check it out. We never know, maybe the King—,"

"No!" Donald snapped, and it looked like Sora was about to walk over and take over the ship himself.

Ironically, that's what he did.

"Give me the controls, I'll land it myself!" Sora yelled, trying to snatch the controls from Donald.

"H-Hey! No!" Donald yelped, trying to take them back.

The ship began to swerve dangerously as the two of them fought for control, but as they battled, the ship began to head for the planet Donald wanted to avoid.

"We're going to crash!" Goofy shouted, and he was right; the ship had jerked powerfully enough to send me right towards the ship's exit.

I didn't crash through the door, but then I saw Mark and Matt flying right towards me. By the looks of things, they must have been flung out of their seats.

"Oh, not good!" I yelled as my two younger brothers crashed right into me, they landed with a thud, but the door didn't swing open.

"Whew, that was close," I half groaned, but just as I said that, the three of us saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy fall towards us, they, too, must have slipped out of their seats.

"Oh no," Mark gasped, and then the three of us turned toward the porthole in the door and began to scream.

Then the other three slammed into the three of us, and the weight and pressure we created swung open the ship's doors. I fell out of the ship, and the first thing I saw was blue sky… followed by a sea of green right below me! I realized that it must have been the jungle that I was falling towards; I was starting to realize why the world was called Deep Jungle.

"Not againnnnnnnnn!" I heard Matt yell, as I saw him speed towards a brown dot that I was heading towards. I then remembered the one time I 'accidentally' pushed him down the rabbit hole back in Wonderland, causing me to chuckle a bit at the memory, but then panic decided to make itself known again, and I began yelling the whole way down.

* * *

Deep Jungle

Matt's POV.

"Not againnnnnnnnn!" I yelled as I fell through the air, remembering the time when Michael shoved me down the rabbit hole in Wonderland.

I tilted my head to see a small brown dot below me, as I continued to fall I saw that it was a giant tree house. At first I thought that a giant tree house would be very cool, but then I realized a very key thing: I WAS FALLING RIGHT TOWARDS IT! Sure enough, I slammed right on the roof with a bang; it felt like I had been punched in the back. How I was alive, I'll never know, maybe the Keyblade lets me not get hurt so easily. But all of that washed away when I saw Michael and Mark, right above my head! The two of them landed right on top of me and I felt like part of a ham sandwich; the bottom slice of bread, to be exact.

"Wow, thanks for breaking our fall," Michael sighed.

"….No problem," I groaned, tilting my head a bit to look around, "Hey, this looks like the tree house where Sora… uh oh."

The three of us looked above us and saw a distinct red shape fall towards us.

Right then and there, the three of us said the exact same word, "No…"

Now let's say you were a tourist and you saw this tree house from the distance, you would see a strange pile of colors on the rooftop and then out of nowhere a red shape would slam on the pile and cause the roof to break.

If you waited five more minutes, you would have heard someone moan, "Owwww."

Then you would hear a crumbling noise, followed by something falling over and ending with it crashing on the ground, and then you would have heard that same someone yelling, "OWWWW!"

Yeah, that was me, yelling about the splinter on my finger. I whimpered slightly as I pulled it out and looked at a pile of suitcases that fell over, but then I realized that the fact that there were suitcases in this tree house was odd alone. I looked around and saw the room had a bunch of them, there were white sheets over the suitcases and due to the dust I would say no one touched it for a long time. I saw Mark helping Sora up and Michael brushing dust off his pants, and then we heard it, the creaking noise proved it: something else was in this house.

"Donald? Goofy?" Sora called out, hoping that the duck and the dog would come out any minute.

"Not Donald and Goofy," Mark whispered, summoning his Keyblade and holding it in front of him.

Then we heard a loud roar, followed by a yellowish shape leaping from the rafters and slamming into Mark, knocking him backwards. I jumped back slightly and got a look at the yellowish shape, only to feel sick; it was a leopard, a leopard named Sabor. I summoned my Keyblade too, but I didn't get the chance to attack because in a blur of yellow I was knocked away and landed on the floor. Sabor stood above me, his teeth bared and giving me a load of his nasty breath.

"Matt!" Sora yelled, "Get away from him!"

Suddenly Sabor was knocked away from me, I lifted my head and couldn't believe my eyes; Sora was moving across the field with an inhuman speed that it was almost hard to tell it was him, his Keyblade struck Sabor as he sped pass him.

_That__... That was Sonic Blade!_ I thought; seeing something on TV and seeing it preformed in real life really are two different things; the real Sonic Blade technique had left me in absolute awe

Sora slowed down and he became more visible, Sabor had fallen on his side and wasn't moving. Sora slowly walked over to the fallen leopard, I breathed a sigh of relief and was about to get up when I had a sense of déjà vu, I looked back at the Leopard and stared at it a bit when I saw his tail twitch, and then I remembered what was about to happen.

"Sora! No!" Michael shouted, apparently he remembered too.

But it was too late, Sabor had struck, slammed into Sora, and sent him to the ground. I began to charge up a magic spell to attack Sabor, but he was already charging right towards Sora, his fangs bared. Sora raised his Keyblade to defend against the attack. Then salvation came; right before Sabor could get close to Sora someone stopped the attack, he dropped from the ceiling and raised a spear and blocked Sabor's attack. At first I thought a naked man saved him, but then I saw the brown burlap clothing around his waist and sighed in relief (What? I don't want to see a full grown naked man!), but then I gasped, because I knew this guy, his name was Tarzan! Tarzan had saved Sora!

Tarzan pushed Sabor away from Sora and held his spear out at him, Sabor growled at him and then he turned around and jumped out of the window. Tarzan ran towards the window and looked out of it, but he didn't exactly run on two legs, he ran on all fours like a gorilla would, makes sense he was raised by gorillas.

"Sabor, danger," Tarzan grunted, his voice indicated that he wasn't fluent in the English language.

"What is this place?" Sora asked, looking outside the window, I went over to the window too and saw the vast jungle below the treehouse.

"This place, this place," Tarzan repeated, causing Sora to raise his eyebrow.

"Ok," Sora said slowly, "Have you seen my friends?"

Tarzan made a befuddled noise; he tilted his head and gazed at Sora curiously.

"I don't think he understood," I noticed, "Try again Sora."

"Friiiennnndssss," Sora repeated slowly, this time Tarzan seemed to understand and he nodded his head.

"Great!" Sora smiled, "The loud one is Donald, and the other—,"

Suddenly Sora just stopped, he stopped where he was mid-sentence and Tarzan waited patiently for him to continue.

"You know what?" Sora sighed, "Never mind, I'm looking for my friends; Riku and Kairi."

"Riku, friend?" Tarzan asked.

"Yeah," Sora nodded.

But as Sora nodded I saw something that made my jaw drop, well, actually it's more like some_one_. Kairi stood right behind Tarzan, looking straight at Sora. I almost called out her name, but then I remembered that she was only an image and not the real Kairi.

"Kairi, friend?" Tarzan asked.

"Um… yeah, friend," Sora answered distractedly, Kairi turned and walked off, disappearing into thin air.

I stood their dumbfounded, I could understand why Sora could see her, but why us? Kairi said we were different, but how? And why? So many questions entered my head, before I knew it; I almost missed half of the conversation.

"Me Tarzan," Tarzan pointed at himself, "Tarzan go."

"Me Sora," Sora answered, apparently trying out how Tarzan speaks, "That Matt, Michael, and Mark. Tarzan go, we go go!"

Tarzan nodded and walked on all fours out of the tree house, Sora walked after him and the three of us just realized how odd it really was hearing Tarzan refer to himself in third person. Michael just shrugged and followed Sora out of the tree house, Mark and I following behind them.

* * *

Tarzan had led us out of the tree house and down a small path that led to a heavily forested area; he walked over to a giant hollow log and pointed at it. 

"Tarzan slide on log, Sora and friends follow," Tarzan nodded and then he leaped in the hollow log.

"Huh, what are the chances of following?" I heard Mark mutter, and then he stated, "I'm not going down there!"

Sora grinned evilly, and then he slowly edged over to Mark, putting an arm on my brother's shoulder. "Gee, Mark, that's too bad… for you!"

Without warning Sora shoved Mark down the hollow log. Mark's distinct yelling was heard, followed by thud, and more yelling.

"Cool!" I yelled, and then I dived down after him.

The log got pretty dark for awhile until I saw a light at the bottom of the tunnel, then I landed on a large tree branch and began to slide down. I almost fell off trying to balance on the large branch; finally I slanted my feet like a skateboarder would and slightly leaned forward. I looked behind me and saw Michael and Sora slide after me, I grinned and looked forward, and came face to face with a yelling Mark.

"Oh no," I gasped, and then I collided with Mark.

The two of us began to roll on the log, our backs hitting the bark of the large branch. Then I heard Michael and Sora yell, then I felt two more bodies collide with Mark and I, and it was then I realized that the four us are now rolling down the tree branch. The four of us, yelling and screaming as we rolled on the log, are now wishing that we just simply walked. Finally we came to a stop just before we fell off the ledge of the branch. We all breathed a sigh of relief, but luck seems to hate me, because then I heard a distinct sound or a tree branch snapping.

I turned to Mark and said, "I hate you."

"I hate Deep Jungle," Michael counters.

"I hate my life," Mark sighed.

"I hate pain!" Sora yelled as the tree branch snapped and the four of us tumbled down.

* * *

I landed on the ground with a hard thud, and to make matters worse; Michael just happened to land on top of me. I groaned in pain and I saw Mark and Sora landed on the ground too, Michael got up and I slowly stood too. What is it with me and getting pummeled today huh?! Does karma hate me?! Does the world hate me?! …Does Chuck Norris hate me? I don't know! I brushed the dust off my pants and helped Sora on his feet. 

"That hurt," I sighed, until I saw where we were, "Whoa…"

We seemed to have fell in a camp of sorts, there were miles of suitcases stacked on top of each other and they were all tied down to the ground, probably to keep them together. There was a small table set out and small cooking stove, you know the kind that you have to light a fire in them in order to cook? There was one tent set up and I saw Tarzan walk inside, I pointed to the tent and the four of us followed him inside the tent. We entered the tent and saw a woman with long brown hair, a red skirt that went to her ankles, a white top of sorts (didn't even think they had tops in this world), I knew who her name was, but Tarzan beat me to it.

"Jane," He grunted, catching Jane's attention.

"Tarzan, you're—oh!" She gasped, noticing the four of us behind him.

"And who are you four?" Jane asked slowly, like she was talking to preschoolers.

"Um, hi there," Sora waved, causing Jane to gasp.

"Oh, you speak English," Jane noted, before sighing, "Then you must not be related to Tarzan… we can barely get a word out of him."

"Well, that, and we are wearing more than our underwear," I stated, and then I felt the familiar sensation of two hands slapping the back of my head.

"Are you all looking for Gorillas too?" Jane asked which caused Sora to frown.

However, he was saved the trouble of answering when someone answered for him, "Hardly."

I turned to the tent entrance just as someone was coming in, he wore a light yellow suit with brown traveling pants, his hair was black and slicked back, but it was receding from the front and it was also graying in some places, oh and to top it off he had a thin mustache giving him the look of a proper Englishman. However my attention was divided when two more people also entered the tent, both I immediately recognized; Donald and Goofy of course.

"Sora!" Donald cheered.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora smiled running up to hug them, when all of a sudden the both of them stopped, turned their backs to each other and frowned.

"Looks like they're not exactly on friendly terms yet," Michael shook his head, walking up to greet Goofy.

"I found those two in the jungle, not any use for hunting Gorillas," The man frowned, walking out of the tent.

"Mr. Clayton," Jane huffed, "We're not hunting them, we're studying them; this is research."

However it seemed Clayton didn't hear Jane's protest; she sighed and turned back to us with a warm smile.

"Well, do make yourselves at home," Jane smiled, walking over to a film projector in the middle of the tent.

"Well…" Sora and Donald huffed, "I'm staying!"

"Huh?!" Sora yelped, a few minutes ago Donald didn't even want to land on the planet, and now he wants to stay?

"Sora look what we found," Goofy grinned, holding out his hands, "Look at this."

The four of us looked at the green bulky object in his hand, I've only seen a few so far, but I recognized the object.

"It's a Gummi Block," I stated, Goofy nodded and Donald spoke up.

"It's the _King's_ _Gummi_!" Donald stated excitedly, which caused Sora's eyes to widen up.

"It is, really?" Sora asked, "I guess we're gonna have to stay here and find the rest."

"For now," Donald huffed, Sora also glared at Donald and he turned to Jane, who was currently trying work the projector.

"Hey Jane, Tarzan told me my friends were here in this jungle," Sora stated, "Have you seen them?"

"No I haven't," Jane frowned, "And Tarzan said he did?"

"He did," Mark answered, "But he seemed… confused, as if he didn't really understand the question.

"Well, Tarzan doesn't understand English so well. We've been trying to teach him, he seems to respond well to pictures," Jane noted, placing some in the projector and switching it on, "Here, see."

A light shone from the projector and onto the tent wall, displaying a picture of a vase of flowers. Jane slid in a few more pictures and a few more rolled by, until finally it stopped on a picture that showed a large castle on a floating rock, right on the castle towers was the same symbol that was on the chest of the Heartless.

"Hey!" I yelped, "That's Hollow— eep!"

I covered my mouth before the name of the castle escaped my mouth, Michael and Mark turned toward me, giving me warning looks. I looked back at Sora and the others as they stared at me; I smiled and rubbed the back of my head, pretending to ignore the stares. Finally the projector was switched off and Sora turned to Tarzan with hopeful eyes.

"Have you seen my friends?" He asked again, hoping Tarzan would answer clearly.

Tarzan looked at Sora and shook his head, causing him to frown and sigh heavily.

"I for one haven't seen any others in the jungle," a voice called out, we looked behind us and saw that Clayton had returned.

"I wager they're with the Gorillas," Clayton continued, "But Tarzan refuses to take us there."

"Now Mr. Clayton," Jane frowned, "I'm sure Tarzan wouldn't purposely—,"

"I'll take you, to see Kerchak," Tarzan grunted, causing Jane to gasp.

"Kerchak?" Jane asked, but Clayton beat Tarzan to the answer.

"He must be their leader, perfect," Clayton grinned, "I'll go with as an escort, after all the jungle is a dangerous place."

"No thanks, Clayton," Mark snapped, "I think we can get there fine."

"But," Clayton stuttered, "There are leopards and—,"

"We have Tarzan," Michael countered, "Who lived here his entire life, and we can defend ourselves; I think we'll be just fine without you, Mr. Clayton."

Clayton seemed at loss for words, he looked as if he was slapped in the face; I could even see a tint of red on his face. Anger, perhaps?

"Looks like your offer is declined," I grinned, which caused Clayton to glare at me. "Now, why don't you go and have a nice cup of English tea?"

"Fine," Clayton huffed, storming out of the tent.

"Come on," Sora said, walking out of the tent, a few seconds later we heard him yell out in fear and ran out to him.

When we stepped outside we looked for the source of the yelling and found it, right in front of the entrance to the jungle was Sabor. It looks like he came back for more, must have been upset when Tarzan beat him.

"Sabor!" Tarzan grunted, pulling out his spear and crouching low to the ground.

"Oh great," Michael frowned, summoning his Keyblade.

"Not again! What did he do, sniff us out?!" Mark growled, also summoning his Keyblade.

"Don't you think having your tail handed to you once is enough?" I taunted Sabor, holding my Keyblade in battle position.

"Alright then!" Sora grinned, getting into battle position with Donald and Goofy, "Round 2!"

To be continued.

* * *

As always please review. 


	8. The jungle that is us

Chapter plot by: Michael, Mark, and Matt Fri.

Chapter written by: Michael Fri

Edited by: ShadowFox123

* * *

Chapter 8: The jungle inside us.

Deep Jungle

Matt's POV cont.

It was as if the jungle gone silent, except for those lousy crickets chirping away. The small little stare off lasted, oh, I'd say... Maybe a minute before the battle began.

Sabor was the first to strike; he ran in a zigzag motion and lunged for Sora. But Tarzan raised his spear and smacked Sabor backwards, the leopard flew backwards and skidded on the ground for a bit, but then he was back on his feet and lunging for us again. Tarzan ran forward to strike, but Sabor knocked him aside, and lunged for us again. The six of us leapt out of the way just before Sabor hit one of us. I whirled around and swung my Keyblade at him, smacking aside the creature. Sabor flew a ways back but regained his footing fast; he growled and lunged for me. I raised my hand and called out a spell.

"Fire!" I yelled, soon the fire magic slammed into the face of the angry leopard and it lost its concentration and tripped, right on me.

I fell over and groaned as the leopard landed on top of me, soon however I was smiling triumphantly, "Hah! In your face, in your fa—,"

However my victory was short lived due to two little facts: He was on top of me, and he was very angry. Sabor turned and growled at me, it was then when I realized that I was in trouble.

"Matt!" Mark and Michael yelled.

"ME!" I yelled, trying to shove Sabor off me.

I saw Mark run over and swung his Keyblade, smacking Sabor in the head. The leopard flew back and once again landed on its feet, he ran right at Mark, only to slam into Goofy's shield. Sabor shook its head after slamming into the shield; Goofy pulled his shield back and pounded the leopard again. Sabor growled and kicked Goofy with his hind legs, but before he could attack again, Tarzan had stepped up. He held his spear in front of him as his body glowed yellow, expelling a mighty roar as he rushed forward and began slamming Sabor with endless attacks. Then he gave one final blow and sent Sabor to the ground, the leopard got up slowly, gave a growl, and ran off into the bamboo thicket.

_Whoa, that's Raging Boar, man Tarzan can kick butt! Awesome! _I thought, in complete awe of Tarzan's special attack.

Goofy helped me up as Tarzan walked over to us; he grunted and gestured for us to follow him to the jungle.

* * *

The jungle was hot, sweaty, buggy, and it was getting on my nerves! I was almost thankful when Tarzan led us to a series of vines, he climbed his way upwards and we followed shortly behind. The climb was just as long as the walk, although there was a nice breeze blowing through that kept us cool. But my hair was damp with sweat, and I had long hair too! You have no idea how annoying it is having sweaty, damp hair falling on your eyes; I was resisting the temptation to dive into the small lake miles below me. Michael was having a hard time too; his clothing was black leather materiel, so he had to remove his jacket and wrap it around his waist. Mark wore lightweight white clothing and was grinning the whole way; he wasn't as hot or sweaty as the two of us.

"When we get up to the apes," Michael panted, "We're going to kill Mark right?"

"You hold him down," I grinned, "And I get to do my 'special ability'."

By the time we made it up Mark was at the top, grinning at the five of us as he was drinking a canteen of water.

"All right, that's it!" Michael growled, as he and Sora grabbed Mark's arms and held him steady.

"Hey! You can't blame me if you guys have long hair or wear heavy clothing!" Mark yelped, trying to break free.

"Shut up!" I shouted, pointing my finger at him, "Just shut up man!"

I pulled off one of my fingerless gloves and held my hand up, and said the two words my brothers had grown to fear, "Pink belly."

"Ah! Wait, no, no, no!" Mark yelled, but it was too late, I was already over there. I lifted his shirt up and began slapping his bare belly like crazy.

It was unfortunate for him that I was the best pink belly maker in the entire universe. By the time I was done poor Mark was whimpering when I 'signed' my work in red berry juice, which will feel very sticky under his shirt. However I was sure that I heard him mutter Cure as I walking away.

* * *

It wasn't long until we found the apes, Tarzan had led us to an area in the trees where Gorillas were sitting in nests they made in the trees. The area where we were standing on made it seem like we were approaching a mighty council and poor Tarzan was the one trying to talk to them. He walked up to them and began talking to them in a series of grunts and gestures, it took me awhile but I recognized the leader as Kerchak, and I knew this conversation wouldn't end well.

"Is he the leader?" Sora asked, gesturing over to Kerchak, who was glaring at the group of us as if we were an infectious disease.

"Yes," Michael interrupted, "The gorilla with the silverback is known as the leader of the family."

"Really?" Goofy asked, scratching his head, "How do you know?"

"Michael studied gorillas once," Mark stated, "He knows some things about them."

Now, I didn't know that. Then again I was too young to even remember such a thing, but it didn't matter right now. I turned back to the conversation to realize the Gorillas and Tarzan were gone.

"Hey!" I yelped, "Tarzan's gone!"

"I saw them heading to the treehouse," Donald pointed in the direction of the treehouse, "They were moving quickly too, we better catch up to them!"

Donald ran ahead and I stopped to try and remember what was supposed to happen next. Michael and Mark played through this part of the game, I did too but so much has happened lately that I lost track of what was supposed to happen.

"Mark, Mike!" I called out, causing my two brothers to stop, "What's supposed to happen next?"

"Um, I think it's about Clayton right?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, I think Terk too," Michael nodded. "We better hurry!"

* * *

I was running down the path to the treehouse when I heard Donald yelling 'STOP!' and a gunshot followed after that. I ran into the room and saw Clayton lying on the floor, Donald pointing an accusatory finger at him.

"What's the big idea?!" Donald shouted, his nostrils flaring and his eyes focused.

"Kerchak!" Tarzan yelled, who had just appeared with Sora and my brothers, "Please!"

That was probably the only line I remember from the level; he spoke it in a series of grunts, but I remembered the line, so I'd thought I'd show it off to everyone. However Kerchak ignored Tarzan's plea and he walked off, leaving us with a psycho hunter.

"You don't understand," Clayton stuttered, "I-I wasn't trying to hurt the gorilla, I um, I saw a spider and I tried to kill it. I saved the gorilla's life!"

"Really?" I crossed my arms, glaring at the psycho hunter, "I don't remember seeing a spider there."

"Um well, I, um, it scurried off of course," Clayton stuttered weakly, trying to give us a false smile.

"Well I hope your story holds… when we tell Jane about this," Michael smirked, "She _might_ believe you, or she won't. Of course if you're telling the truth it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Clayton flushed red and got up and walked out of the treehouse, the seven of us stayed behind.

"Do you think he really did try to save the gorilla?" Sora asked us.

"Nope, not one bit," Mark replied bluntly. "Clayton's bad news; he can't be trusted anywhere near the Gorillas."

"Yeah," Michael nodded, frowning. "And now that Clayton has given them nothing but distrust towards us, they may not help us out."

"But we need the gorillas to find Riku and Kairi!" Sora protested, turning to Tarzan. "Can we find them again Tarzan?"

"Maybe," Tarzan grunted, walking towards the entrance. "See Jane, about Clayton."

I nodded, following Tarzan out of the treehouse. "Good idea, let's go."

I was running out of the treehouse when I felt something tingling on my arm, I looked back down at my bracelet and it was shimmering slightly. _It has never done that before…_ I thought; examining my bracelet as a small aura shone around it. But I didn't have time to ponder about this; I had to get back to Jane's tent. There was no way I was going to miss Clayton getting yelled at by Jane, definitely not.

* * *

"How dare you!" Jane shouted, her face slightly resembled Donald's from earlier. "What were you even thinking?!"

"Now Ms. Porter I already explained it to you," Clayton said testily. "I wasn't trying to harm the gorilla—,"

"You are not to go near the gorillas again!" Jane cut him off; her patience has reached its end.

"All because of one mistake?" Clayton laughed, as if her order was a funny little joke, "Come now…"

Clayton took a step towards her and I stepped in front of Jane instinctively, while Sora, Michael, Mark, and Tarzan gave him what I like to call 'the death glare'.

I was giving him the death glare too, until Mark turned to me and whispered sharply, "Matt, you look like you're constipated."

"I do not!" I whispered back, shutting Mark up quickly.

Clayton stared at all of us, he seemed to be weighing his choices before he sighed and said, "All right, All right."

Then he turned and left the tent, the tent flap fluttered as he left the room. Sora turned to us and said, "Okay, where do we look now Tarzan?"

However before Tarzan could say anything there was a gunshot coming from outside.

"What was that?" Jane asked fearfully, just as I was running out of the tent.

Sora followed me shortly as I looked at my left; there was nothing there except for the research equipment that was on the table. But then I heard Sora yell out in surprise and I looked behind me, what I saw made me yell out too.

"Heartless!" I yelled, watching the ape-like Heartless surround a gorilla who must have wandered over to the campsite.

If there was one thing I learned from watching Clayton it was this; if you delve into a jungle you can easily get lost in it, but if you try to delve into your own little jungle you can lose yourself in it.

Now we just needed to find our way out of his jungle.

* * *

That's it, as always please review and no flames. Advice is good though.


	9. Jungle Rumble

Disclaimer: We do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter Plot by: Michael, Mark, and Matt Fri.

Chapter written by: Mark and Michael Fri

Beta read by: ShadowFox123

Onto the reviews:

Faermage-KH Junkie: Yes, we have updated with in a year. Which is good.

Count X. Gamlxltoe Nightmare: I think it is, it has lot of story.

Mentality at its Worst: Yes, yes I know we update slow, but I blame the computer...! Ok fine it's us.

Now let's start the chapter.

* * *

Deep Jungle

Chapter 9: Jungle Rumble

Matt's POV Continued

The group of Heartless danced around the gorilla, looking for an open shot; all of us knew it wouldn't be long until they attacked it. Mark ran forward, stopping one of the Heartless that leaped at their victim, then countered with a kick, knocking it away before it dissolved. With one of their men defeated, the Heartless were now aware of our presence. They jumped at Mark, though luckily Michael was faster: he stopped the attack and sent it backwards.

"Fire!" My hand glowed with bright red energy and shot out a fire ball, turning a Heartless to ash seconds before it evaporated.

Donald did the same as Sora held off the other two Heartless, Goofy was guarding the gorilla to prevent Heartless from hurting them. Tarzan, Michael, and Mark were quickly finishing off the last of the Heartless with some quick strikes.

Soon all the Heartless were dead, giving us some time to catch our breath.

"We need to find the other Apes," I said, looking out into the jungle. "They might be in trouble!"

"Well then let's go!" Sora pumped his fist, hoisting his Keyblade over his shoulder and running off into the jungle.

"Tarzan, go with Sora," Michael looked at us. "Goofy go with Matt, Donald go with Mark."

"What about you?" Mark asked.

"About that…" Michael chuckled, before running off into the jungle.

"Ughh, I hate it when he does that," Mark growled before running off with Donald to the Bamboo Grove.

Goofy and I just shrugged and followed them into the Bamboo Grove.

* * *

After we finished saving the last of the Gorillas, we met over by the forest entrance. However, not all was peaceful in the jungle: Mark was in one of his rants.

"See? That's what you get for going alone," Mark scolded to a bruised up Michael.

"I told you before, it was one attack," Michael muttered.

"You have a gash on your back," Mark pointed out.

"No I don't," Michael chuckled nervously.

"What's that then?!" He pointed at the cut on the side of Michael's back.

"A flesh wound," Michael stated calmly.

"Flesh wounds don't bleed like that!" Mark yelped.

"Sure they do!" Michael retorted.

"WILL YOU JUST CURE HIM ALREADY!?" I yelled, already sick and tired of the rambling.

"Fine, but I still think he deserves it. Heal," Mark muttered, healing Michael's 'flesh wound'.

"We should get back to the tent," Sora suggested, drinking a potion to heal from his own battle.

We were able to agree on that at least, the seven of us made our way back to the tent. We were only halfway there when I got this uneasy feeling, it was quiet… there was no birds chirping, no wildlife sounds, something was wrong. I quickened my pace so that I was ahead of everyone, the closer I got to the tent the more afraid I became, but I felt like I needed to get back there quickly. I rounded the corner to the tent and gasped: the site looked like a bomb went off. The luggage was askew, the tents were knocked over, tables were flipped over, the Heartless were here. I yelled out for the others and ran for Jane's tent, fearing the worst.

"Jane!" I called out, running in the tent.

She was gone, the tent was empty. There was some things knocked over, looks like a small fight happened here, I saw a set of boot prints on and ground and narrowed my eyes. The others came in and saw the wreck that was the inside of the tent, Tarzan looked around the room and grunted.

"Jane, Terk, kidnapped," He said. "Taken…"

Tarzan walked right past us and back outside without another word. The rest of us just stood there for a moment, before we joined the ape-man in the Bamboo Thicket.

"Do you think the Heartless got her?" Sora asked, shouldering his Keyblade, his grip tightened around it.

"… No," I said, summoning mine. "I think something else did."

No one said anything after that last line, we decided to check out the bamboo grove again to see if Jane or Terk was there. Unfortunately the grove was completely empty, except for something brown sitting on the stone. I walked over to see what it was and cringed, it was Clayton's pipe. I was about to pick it up when a strange shadow zoomed above my head and landed in front of me, I looked up at it and gasped: Sabor had returned.

"Stupid cat; didn't you learn your lesson last time?" Michael ran up, summoning his Keyblade.

"Out of our way!" Sora shouted, running up and attacking Sabor.

The jungle cat leapt above Sora and tried to swipe at him, however he blocked the attack and smacked Sabor aside. The leopard flew back a few feet and rolled on the ground, when it got back up it received a blow to the skull, courtesy of Goofy. However just as the captain of the guard was about to make a final blow, Sabor kicked him back with its hind legs and with it's agility it ran up and swiped at Mark and Tarzan. Mark leaned back so that the claws only scratched his chest, Tarzan drew his spear back like a baseball bat and brought it on Sabor's head. That blow alone weakened him down, the leopard was starting to realize that it was outmatched. It also didn't help that Donald, Michael and I cast Thunder simultaneously on it. Tarzan ran up to stab its spear into it, however something surprising happened: Sabor leapt into the grove and reappeared, behind me!

"Oh, no you don't!" Mark shouted, running up and tackling the jungle cat. "Leave him alone!"

Now that he pinned Sabor to the ground he raised his Keyblade and slammed it on it multiple times, hitting the jungle cat like a giant drum. Finally, Sabor gave a final cry before slumping over. The jungle cat had done his last hunt.

Michael walked over to Mark and scoffed, "Who's the crazy one, me or you?"

"All of us," He answered, "We need to find Jane, does anyone have an idea where to look?"

The seven of us paused at that question, I thought of all the locations that I went and tried to remember where Jane and Terk were hidden. _I've been to the Tree house, the Bamboo Thicket, the Jungle, even the vines. Where else is there? _I thought, but then I remembered there was one place we hadn't checked: The Climbing Trees.

"What about the area that leads to the log we slid down? We haven't checked there have we?" I suggested.

The others exchanged glances and seemed to think about my answer, then one by one they nodded at the suggestion.

"Okay, let's look there," Sora said, running out of the bamboo grove and back to the tent.

The others nodded and began running after him, but as I was following them I stopped. I felt weak and kinda dizzy; my bracelet was tingling slightly and I saw it was glowing once again. But before I could get a closer look at it the glowing ceased and I felt better. _That was odd…_ I thought, but there was no time to worry about it. I shook the remanding feelings away and ran after them.

* * *

Sure enough, when we made it to the passage we heard someone calling for help.

"Tarzan!" Jane yelled from her cage, Terk trying to hide behind her.

"Jane!" Tarzan yelled back, he was running over to her when two dark blots appeared on the ground.

"Heartless!" I yelled, summoning my Keyblade as more appeared around us.

"Perfect," Michael groaned, getting into his battle pose.

"We have to save Jane!" Sora said as he, Donald, and Goofy drew their weapons.

_(Play: Tension Rising, Yoko Shimomura)_

"I'll cut a path!" Mark yelled as he jumped forward, slicing the Heartless in his way.

Goofy ran after him and blocked an attack from a Primate Heartless, Donald and Tarzan defeated the staggering ones with their attacks. Michael and Sora headed for the cage, trying to pry the vines apart.

"It's no use, they're too strong!" Sora shouted, even trying hack at it with his Keyblade wasn't enough.

Michael looked around and pointed at something on the tree, "See that purple fruit? Destroy it!"

I looked above my head and saw the purple fruit, it was beating and writhing like it was a heart. I shuddered a bit before raising my hand.

"No prob; I'll just roast it. Fire!"

My hand glowed brightly with flaming energy, but all of a sudden, it died. I looked at my hand and tried charging up another spell, however nothing happened. I felt my bracelet tingling again and looked at it, like last time it was glowing brightly, yet I couldn't seem to cast Fire or any other spell. Because I wasn't paying attention, I was knocked across the canopy by a Shadow Heartless. Just as it leaped to attack again Sora jump-sliced it, and helped me to my feet.

"Matt, what happened?!" Sora asked, shooting a Thunder spell at another Shadow.

"I… I can't cast my magic," I said in shock, earning the same expressions from everyone else.

"Oh man," Sora grimaced, "Goofy, cover Matt. Mark, Donald, Michael, Tarzan, and I will handle the fruit and the Heartless!"

"Got'cha!" Goofy ran over to me and the two of us fought off the surrounding Heartless.

However, more were popping up by the minute and they were getting stronger. And although the fruit was being cut to pieces, the Heartless were putting up a powerful fight. I saw a Primate knock Sora and Michael over to us, I would have cast a Cure, but of course my magic still didn't work.

"I've got an idea," Sora announced, "Mark and Donald, combine your attacks into one devastating blow on the fruit! Michael and I will handle the Heartless."

They exchanged glances before they called out their attacks.

"Sonic Blade!"

"Chaos Control!"

Soon, two blurs were moving across the field and slicing the Heartless that coming out of the ground. While that was happening, Mark leaped high into the air as Donald shot a Fire spell to him. When the Fire spell was right in front of him he threw his Keyblade, the Fire spell mixed with the Keyblade and covered it with flames as it zoomed towards the fruit. When the flame laced Keyblade hit the fruit it blew up and blasted the fruit to pieces. The Heartless stopped popping up and Michael and Sora eliminated the remaining enemies. The vines on the cage severed and fell to the ground, Tarzan stabbed the last Heartless and leaped up to Jane and Terk.

_(End: Tension Rising)_

"You saved us!" Jane embraced him as we walked up, "Thank you, all of you."

"Don't mention it," I muttered, I barely did anything in this fight, all because my magic was going screwy.

"What happened?" Michael asked.

"I don't remember much, but the last thing I saw… was Mr. Clayton coming into the tent with those creatures," Jane gasped.

"Clayton?!" Sora yelped, "No way!"

"Did you see where he went next?" Mark asked.

"Um… he said something about the Gorillas, I think he's going after them next," Jane answered, "Something about the Cliffs?"

"Family, danger," Tarzan grunted before running back the way we came.

"Arrgh! We've been tricked!" I growled, running after Tarzan. "It was all a big diversion!"

"Let's pick up the pace then!" Sora yelled, following Tarzan and I back to the Cliffs.

* * *

"No!" Sora yelled, stopping the hunter from pulling the trigger of his gun.

The loud yell distracted him long enough for the Gorillas to escape. He stared at us with a blank look in his eyes, the Heartless that were used to round up the Gorillas jumping next to him. He turned abruptly, and aimed the barrel at us.

"Clayton," I growled, summoning my Keyblade.

"Not Clayton!" Tarzan said unexpectedly, muttering something in a series of grunts before repeating. "Not Clayton!"

A magical barrier appeared behind us, sealing our exit and preventing anyone from entering. Everyone else drew their weapons and faced the small army ahead of them.

"He's not listening, take him down!" Michael yelled.

_(Play: Force Your Way, Nobuo Uematsu)_

Clayton lead off the attack with a blast from his shotgun, Goofy blocked it with his shield before it could hit anyone. Good thing too, in the game that gun would take a chunk of your health down, and there was no way I intended on facing a blast here.

"Get the army of Heartless!" Sora shouted, running up and slashing two of them.

"Watch out for Clayton though!" I warned, hitting the hunter aside before he could shoot at Sora.

The rest of us immediately attacked the rest, each of us handling our own enemy; I kept Clayton from keeping a bead on anyone long enough to get a shot. I ran up and struck him twice before he leaped onto a high pillar. I held out my hand to call out a spell, but stopped when I realized that it may not be a good idea. So I took a few steps back and leaped into the air, I struck just as he was about to fire his gun. The shot missed his intended target and hit the rocky walls, I hit him twice on the chest and kicked him off the ledge. When he landed, Tarzan ran up and smacked him backwards with the spear, by the time Clayton stood up the last of his Heartless army was depleted. He gazed at us with that strange blank look before he aimed his rifle at us.

_(End: Force Your Way)_

It looked like Clayton was going to shoot us, but then he stopped and raised his shotgun. Then the wall behind him blew up, shards of stone flew in different directions, when the dust cleared he was still standing there... and there was an odd blurry shape behind him. Tarzan rushed forward at Clayton, jabbing his spear at him.

"Tarzan, wait!" Sora wasn't the only one who had a bad idea of what was going to happen.

As Tarzan's spear was about to meet Clayton he was knocked away, by nothing! Soon Clayton started floating then I remembered its name: The Stealth Sneak!

_(Play: The One Star, The World Ends With You)_

"Don't stop moving!" Mark yelled as he ran to Clayton but slashing where he thought the Stealth Sneak would be.

"How is he doing that?" Sora asked as he jumped just a bullets whizzed by him.

"He's using an overgrown lizard Heartless!" Michael yelled then used Thunder on it.

I ran to him, jumped slamming my Keyblade onto his face, I did some rapid hits till it screeched and kicked me back. I slid headfirst into a rock, causing me to see stars for a few brief seconds before I looked back; Mark turned to see if I was ok, though as he did Clayton aimed his shotgun at Mark's head, "Mark, watch out!"

He turned to see the barrel just a bit away from him, "Reflect!"

The bullets bounced of the shield and slammed into the Stealth Sneak. It took too much damage it revealed it's self; it had at least thirty shades of green, both light and dark.

Though then I remembered when the Stealth Sneak revealed it's self it could shot white beams, and that's what it did, it glow then shot a long beam at Mark it slammed right into him, sending him flying in the air then he slammed into the ground, not moving.

"No!" Michael and Sora yelled as Michael jumped at Clayton and Sora went at the Stealth Sneak, followed by Donald and Goofy.

I got up and ran to Mark, "Mark, please wake up."

I rolled him over to see if he was all right, he was breathing but not awake, on top of that a jagged rock slit Mark arm, I didn't have any potions on me, or could I cast magic. So I did what I remember what Mark and Michael told me: I ripped a strip of cloth from my shirt and tied it tightly around his arm to stop the bleeding.

"He's going to pay for that," I said to myself then noticed my bracelet glowing, then I realized it: my magic wasn't going screwy, it was building up.

I got up and turned to the others, "You may want to move."

They saw what I was doing and jumped out of the way, "Atomic Blazer!"

My hands glowed with an intense bright red light; tell it was at a point when the other looked away then it fired a circle of fire swirled to Clayton and the Stealth Sneak. At the end of the fire was a face of a Lion, and it was moving to fast for them to move, with one loud roar from the flames as the smashed right into Clayton and the Heartless, sending them both to the ground.

_(End The One Star.)_

I smiled then pumped my fist into the air, turning to the others.

"Man that was so cool! It brought them down like that," I snapped my fingers.

"Good job, Matt," Sora said as he put his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, nice one," I turned to see Mark being supported by Michael.

I ran to him and slapped him on the shoulder, "Man if it wasn't for me you would be dead."

"Yeah, so thanks," Mark said as he rubbed his head.

"Anytime… Oh, and, Mark once we get back to the Gummi ship, I want a giant cup of Chocolate Milk, and a Ham Burger!"

Mark sighed, "I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

"Nope," I replied and everyone laughed.

We walked over to where the Stealth Sneak was dissolving... as well as Clayton?

"I guess because he gave into the darkness, he was a Heartless…" Mark said as he looked over Clayton.

"I guess…" though as I said that I heard footsteps, I turned to see Kerchak.

"Oh, no…" I said to myself as I stepped back behind my brothers.

Hey we helped you," Mark stuttered as he took a step towards us.

He stopped about a foot away from me. Thank God, I thought, but he only stopped to pick up Mark up, and throw him on top of a nearby cliff.

"I hate the Jungle!" Mark yelled as he went flying up.

Then with one more swing, he knocked Sora, Michael, Tarzan, Goofy, Donald, and I up over the ridge.

* * *

I landed with a loud thump, I growled, "I can't believe he did that!"

"Well just be glad we're alive…" Michael signed.

"I know…" I got up and looked around, "Now what?"

"I say we go into that dark cave that's roaring like a beast," Mark said with a smile.

Sora nodded and then slowly walked to the cave. From the inside you could see where the sound came from, the water fall echoed all the way into the cave, it was so cool.

"So this is your home?" Sora asked.

"The waterfall, it's echoing all the way here," I looked behind me to Jane, Where did she come from!?

Tarzan nodded then pointed up the cave and made the same grunts as before. However, he then said, "Friends there. See friends."

Sora smiled, "Then what are we waiting for!" He jumped the started scaling the wall like Spider-Man. Mark nodded then climbed after him, then Michael, I went next, Donald was next, Goofy was right behind him, and then went Tarzan and Jane.

When I made it up I saw Sora with a grim face and Mark sitting down on a rock.

"They… aren't here…" Sora sighed.

"Hey sorry…" I said as I sat next to Mark.

I looked behind me to see Michael throw Donald up, (looks like the Duck had some trouble.)

"Though I know they're out there, I will find them!" Sora yelled thrusting his Keyblade in the air.

"Yeah you will, though not without us by your side," Mark said as he lifted his Keyblade in the air as well.

"Yeah, no matter what happens we will help," Michael as he held his Keyblade in the air with them.

"Yeah, I'll always be there to back you guys up!" I said as I thrust my Keyblade into the air. Suddenly, the weapon started glowing, and pulled its tip to point right at the cave wall. It shot out a white beam, right into the Keyhole. Oh my god, I locked the Keyhole! I thought, stunned at the event.

"Nice job, Matt," Sora said.

"Yeah!" I yelled, swinging my Keyblade around.

Tarzan and Jane finally made it up, and Tarzan walked up to Sora and grunted a bit.

Jane came walking up and sighed.

"Oh, I get it," she started grunting like Tarzan, "means 'Heart'."

"Friends in our Heart, Clayton lose Heart. No Heart, no see friends," Tarzan said to Sora.

Sora smiled then turned to Donald and Goofy, "Sorry about what I said."

"I'm sorry too," Donald admitted.

"Yeah, all for one!"

"And one for all!" Sora yelled with Donald and Goofy.

I sighed and sat down, when I did I saw a Gummi piece. I picked it up and showed it to the others.

"Guys! I found it!" I held it up, and Goofy walked up to us.

"It's a Gummi, though not the King's," Goofy said as he examined the Gummi.

"But still, it's all good!" Mark yelled.

Michael nodded as he folded his arms, "Let's get back to the tent."

Donald turned to leave when he was face to face with Terk, he gulped and suddenly Jane began to chuckle.

"I think someone has an admirer," She said in a singsong voice.

"Oh no! Daisy would kill me!" Donald groaned, as everyone laughed at the statement.

* * *

"Well, I guess we better get going," Sora said as he sipped some tea that Jane gave us.

"Where's your ship anyway?" Jane asked.

"Um, not to far from here," Sora smiled trying not say 'it's a spaceship.'

We got up to leave when Tarzan stopped us, "Tarzan, Sora friends."

Sora smiled at Tarzan and nodded, "Yeah… yeah we are."

We all said goodbye to everyone and soon we were on our way out of the jungle, ready to head to the ship and take a long deserved rest.

* * *

The Black Scepter  
Mark's POV

"The Gummi block that came out of that hole, it's not like the others, I wonder what it's used for?" Sora asked looking closing at the Gummi Piece.

"I dunno," Donald said as he typed something into the ship.

"Maybe Leon will know, then?" Goofy asked.

"Right," Donald said as two pilot handles came out, "to Traverse Town!"

Donald yelled, but then Sora bumped in, "Hey, I want to be pilot!"

"Hey, stop it!" Donald yelled back trying to push Sora away.

"Oh, come on, I'm the Keyblade Master!" Sora yelled trying to overpower the oddly very strong Duck.

"I don't care who you are, leggo!" Donald retorted.

"Here we go again," Goofy sighed.

I couldn't help but smile. "Well I'm heading to sleep, hopefully by the time I wake this will be done and we will be there."

I left the two of them to their arguing and I stepped into my room, sat on my bed and fell asleep.

* * *

Well that's it; please review it makes us go faster. Anyway next is Traverse Town


	10. The Dimensional Legend

Disclaimer: We do not own Kingdom Hearts, or Nightfires04's Ben.

Mark: I've done it!

Matt: You've done what?

Mark: I have got Nightfire04 to guest star in the new chapter of Keys!

Matt:… Really?

Mark: Yes, now let me explain a bit about his OC.

He is an AU to this story. Though his OC is from the very fic that got us writing, he was asked to journey with the heroes of Final Fantasy X in Final Fantasy X: Destiny's Call, then moved onto a Final Fantasy X-2 Eternal Requiem, and now the latest one Final Fantasy VIII Dimensional Legend, and he has a really cool forum about it to, check them out there really well written. By the way, the term 'SeeD' will be used a lot, they are an elite mercenary group that is from the game of FFVIII.

Michael: Yes they are, without further ado, let's get on with the chapter.

Plot made by: Mark, Michael, Matt Fri, and Nightfire04.

Written by: Mark, Michael, and Matt Fri.

Edited by: Shadowfox123

* * *

Chapter 10: The Dimensional Legend

Gummi Ship

Mark POV.

Dreams, man I haven't had a dream since I ended up in this journey, and I wouldn't say it's a journey of a lifetime, really all I want to do is wake up in my bed and back to my normal boring life… That's something I won't have the pleasure of doing for awhile.

I woke up with my head hurting, along with my back and shoulders.

"Maybe I took more of a hit than I thought I did," I sighed and reached for my jacket. After slipping it on, I opened the pack of stuff that just magically appeared from home.

Sitting near the pack was my bass guitar, I smiled and walked out the door while playing one of my favorite songs: Carry on Wayward Son.

I walked into the kitchen to see Michael sipping a cup of hot coffee eating some toast, Matt digging into a plate of bacon, Sora pouring a bowl of Cereal and Goofy sitting on a chair… looking at a chocolate donut?

"Uh, what's Goofy doing?" I asked.

"Apparently he's having his daily staring contest with the donut," Michael said, sipping his coffee.

Goofy kept staring at the donut till he blinked, "Ah, you win again, you chocolate devil."

He picked it up and started munching on it.

"Okay… That was weird," I sighed then poured myself a cup of ice tea.

As I sat down and continued to strum the bass, the speaker from the cockpit flipped on and Donald's voice called out.

"Hey, could one of you bring me a cup of coffee?" Donald asked.

"I'll get it," I said as I walked to the coffee pot.

"Now remember, there's a pot of hot coffee and a pot of cold coffee, bring me the—,"

The speaker frizzled out a bit and I missed what he wanted, so I just poured some hot coffee in a cup and came to the cockpit.

I walked in to see right in front of us was Traverse Town, I walked to Donald, and sat in a chair next to him.

"Looks like we will be landing soon," I said, though my thoughts were more going to the Heartless that was there, and an odd feeling as if something wasn't in place.

"Yep, hey I want to try to get a couple sips in before we land," I gave Donald the cup of coffee, "ah there's nothing better then a cold cup of coffee in the morning."

"Hold on! It's not cold!" I yelled, though he drank it to the final drop; my mouth was hanging open as Donald face started to change, he spit a giant gulp of coffee out, screaming at me.

"Why did you get me hot coffee! I clearly said cold coffee!"

"Well, I'm sorry, I wasn't even aware that ducks could _drink_ coffee!" I yelled back.

Donald was about to launch into a tirade when we both noticed the control panel smoking.

Donald walked over and looked over some stuff, then went to the speaker.

"Good news is that we will be landing very soon; (I heard the others yell at in happiness at this announcement) the bad news is that it will be a _crash_ landing."

After a second the ship started spinning as it fell to Traverse Town, everyone started yelling; I slipped and hit the glass yelling, 'not again!' Luckily the glass didn't break, but I could only watch as the ship fell to the towns square.

* * *

Traverse Town

Michael's POV

Idiots. The both of them, Mark and Donald. I know they were the two who crashed the ship; why? Because both of them were in the cockpit when it happened. The crash wasn't so fun either: it was like a roller coaster with no seatbelts, painful to the very end. Luckily, none of us was hurt badly as we crawled out of the wreckage; I was muttering a string of insults that I _really_ don't feel like writing right now. But as I was describing over a thousand different and disturbing things I thought Mark was, I heard footsteps from in front of me and looked up to see a familiar face.

"Hey Yuffie, sorry to drop in like this," I joked, grinning at her shocked expression.

"'Dropped in'? More like dive bombed!" Yuffie yelled bewilderedly, "What happened?"

"Mark happened," I stated simply, just the wrecked door of the Gummi Ship bursts off its hinges.

"Don't blame me!" Mark yelled, "It was Donald!"

"Who gave me the wrong coffee, huh, huh?" Donald retorted.

"Don't look at me," Matt groaned, stumbling out of the ship.

"Hey Yuffie," Sora muttered, who also didn't look too good from being treated like a pinball.

Goofy, however, came out the ship looking as chipper as ever; he was even still eating that donut he had the staring contest with earlier. He finished the last bits, looked around and frowned.

"Did something happen?" He asked.

We all stared at him for several minutes before turning back to Yuffie. "We're going to need Cid's help, and we need to find Leon. Any ideas on where he is?"

Yuffie was still in a state of shock, she blinked twice before giving me a confused expression, "Huh…? Oh, yeah he's in his training spot with Aerith. Go to the alley behind the hotel and find an old pipeline, it should lead you to his spot."

"Thanks," I said, rubbing my chin thoughtfully, which caused Yuffie to giggle.

"I-Is something funny?" I asked, not sure why she was giggling.

She put her hand to her mouth as if to suppress the laughter, somehow she managed to say through giggles, "I like your goatee."

"…My what?" I asked, looking around for something like a mirror to look in.

I found a window and gazed at my reflection. Sure enough, I had a light mustache and a slight beard on my chin. I flushed red as I heard the others giggling behind me; damn it, why couldn't the mysterious forces behind this whacked out adventure give me a damn razor? I turned around and glared at the group, causing most of them to fall silent. The ones who didn't weren't looking at me so they couldn't tell I was glaring. So I resorted to verbal response.

"It's not funny," I said in a low voice, catching Yuffie and Sora's attention.

"It's just a little bit," Mark says.

_Keep calm…keep calm… _I thought, taking a deep breath before I walked back to the others. Sora looked confused and (dare may I guess it) a little hurt at my bluntness? Mark and Matt seemed to be used to it, so they weren't as affected. Donald and Goofy shared confused expressions and Yuffie looked guilty, as if she'd done some terrible crime. That kinda hurt me a bit.

"Look, just don't worry about it, I need to find a razor at a shop or something," I said, trying to ease off the guilt.

"S-Sure, if you say so," Yuffie answered back, the guilt still in her eyes; damn… this is why I can't be with anybody.

"Right… well, we'll be on our way," I mumbled, walking past her and heading for the double doors, the others joining me shortly.

After a slightly long walk and a few Heartless battles, we made our way to the alley. The steel pipe Yuffie mentioned was blocked off by a few metal bars, we stood in front of the tunnel and frowned.

"Great, how do we get in?" I pondered.

Sora walked over to the bars and examined the bars, "Maybe there's a secret switch somewhere?"

"Yeah," Goofy nodded, running forward eagerly.

"Wait, Goofy!" Donald tried to stop him, we both knew what was going to happen… but it was too late.

Goofy tripped, he slammed into Sora, and Donald tripped in his attempt to stop him and slammed into the both of them. The forces of their combined slams hit the bars and broke them into pieces. The three of them groaned as the three of us stared in amazement.

"Huh…that works too," Mark shrugged, walking into the tunnel.

I shook my head and Matt and I helped the others up, following Mark and swimming into the tunnel. After awhile of navigating the water and dark tunnel we made it to an oval area in the cavern, where we saw Leon training and Aerith watching him with a cup of lemonade in her hands.

"Leon, Aerith!" Sora called, catching their attention.

Leon stopped his training and placed Revolver down, wiping his brow and looking at us before sitting down. Then Sora told the story about what happened in Wonderland and Deep Jungle, including the keyholes and the Gummi Blocks. Leon listened with a patience attendance and looked interested after he explained the Keyblade's reaction to the keyhole.

"You found the Keyholes I see," he finally said.

"Keyhole?" Sora asked, leaning forward anxiously.

"Yes, they're in Ansem's Report, or the page you sent to us," Leon explained. "According to that report, every world has a heart. The Keyholes lead to these hearts; if a Heartless were to get to these massive hearts, the world would be swallowed into darkness."

"Like Destiny Islands," I added, watching Sora's face go pale.

"That happened to my home?" Sora asked, Leon's face went grim as he nodded.

"Most probably."

"I can't let that happen to the other worlds," Sora pumped his fist in the air.

"Okay, so we go to world to world and seal up the Keyholes," Matt said, standing up. "But what about the Gummi Block?"

"Ah, well, you best take that to Cid," Leon frowned. "He's better when it comes to working with gummies than me."

"All right," Sora nodded, "you guys coming?"

"Um, not me," I said, "I need to pick up a razor apparently."

"I'm going to shop for some items," Mark said.

"I'm going to fight some— go shopping too," Matt added hastily.

"All right, be careful you guys," Leon nodded.

"Hold up, I just remembered something," I frowned, pulling out some pages. "We found these on Olympus and Deep Jungle, forgot to tell you, sorry."

"That's fine," Leon nodded, handing them to Aerith. "We'll get to work on deciphering them."

I nodded and the six of us turned to when Leon called out, "Hold on Sora, I have something for you."

He walked up to him and placed a small stone in his hand, "I found this a long time ago, I have no idea what it does exactly, but maybe you can have better luck than me."

_Pawning our stuff on other people are we Leon? _I thought as Sora took the stone and pocketed it.

"Okay, thanks Leon," he grinned as Leon gave a curt nod and then we left.

I was intending on walking to the First District to buy a razor, I was walking through the Second District, Keyblade in hand, ready to fight if needed. Then I heard a voice from behind me.

"Guess whooo?"

I grinned and put on a mock look of concentration, "Let's see… is it you, Donald?"

"Donald?" the voice yelped. "Since when did I sound like a duck?"

"I don't know; it's easy to make Donald mad. I guess the same goes to you, Yuffie," I turned around and chuckled at the ninja.

Who crossed her arms, pretending to look mad at me, but soon she broke down into fits of laughter.

"Okay, okay, so where you heading to?" she asked.

"First District," I replied simply. "It's where most shops are, I need to get a razor it seems."

Yuffie gave a wide grin and walked over to my side, grinning madly. "Look no more."

Then she whipped something from behind her back and smiled triumphantly, it was a thin black razor. I gave a chuckle and took the razor.

"Thanks, where did you get it?"

"From Leon," she said matter-of-factly. "I figured you could use it more than he does."

_She pilfered this from Leon? Okay, he's not here, so slip it into your pocket calmly and don't panic!_ I calmly slipped the razor into the front pocket and smiled nervously, looking around to make sure Leon himself wasn't behind me. I heard chuckling and looked at Yuffie, who had this odd smile on her face.

"You have a nice smile you know, you should smile more often." She said.

"I smile…sometimes," I mumbled, slipping my hands into my pocket. "You just kinda miss them."

"Well then…" Yuffie said, running over to one of the benches and leaping onto them. "I'll have to keep a better eye out for them, I want to see you smile."

I flinched a bit internally, but I kept my expression normal. At least until I saw the Heartless behind her, I summoned my Keyblade and got into a battle stance. Yuffie picked up on my cue and looked around, leaping off the bench and pulling her Shuriken out.

"You get any better from when we fought last time?" Yuffie asked, tensing up as more Heartless appeared.

I smirked, "Yeah, you?"

"Hehe, I guess you're about to find out…"

_(Play: Someday (English Version), The World Ends With You)_

Yuffie leaped forward and swiped her Shuriken at a Shadow Heartless, when it took the hit she threw it at a few more that were heading for her. I ran up to the floating elemental Heartless and started smacking them aside with the Keyblade, one by one they hit the wall and dissipated, leaving only the Lightning ones behind.

"Fire!" I shouted, shooting the spell at the group of Heartless.

It slammed into one and it vanished, the other one began shooting lighting spells at me. I started running and dodging the bolts of lightning, in fact it gave me an idea: I started running to the Shadow Heartless as the bolts were coming up behind me, just as I got near the Heartless and just as the bolts were about to hit me I called out a move.

"Chaos Control!"

Using my enhanced speed and moved out of the way just as the bolts of lighting collided with the Heartless. I smirked in satisfaction as the Heartless dissipated from a bolt from one of their allies. I also took this time to defeat any other Shadows in my way. Yuffie seemed to be handling herself just fine, she got a lot better than I last saw her. When did she get so good? Didn't matter, I focused on taking down the Heartless around me, however a problem arose: Fat Bodies, two of them. My eyes widened and I got into battle stance, recalling how I last defeated them.

"Retribution!" I called out, I began to feel a bit weaker, from usage of too many moves, but I ran up to the Fat Body and when I sliced down the Heartless flew backwards and crashed into a building.

However, I forgot about the second one. Before I could do anything a giant fist smacked me in the head, I tumbled back and landed on my stomach. I got up on my knees and saw the Fat Body sliding on its massive stomach to me, I raised my Keyblade to strike again but I was once again smacked aside.

"Ugh… of all the days to not have an Ether or a Potion…" I groaned as I saw the Fat Body jump in the air, it was about to slam down and crush me.

"All's Creation!"

I saw Yuffie leap into the air and I saw her Shuriken glow with green energy, she threw it at the Fat Body and it pierced through its body, giving a short yell before vanishing. The Shuriken embedded itself in the ground next to me and Yuffie landed in front of me.

She held her hand out, "That was for saving me…"

I grinned and took her hand, she helped me up on my feet and I chuckled, "Thanks…"

Just then I remembered something, the Fat Body I hit into the wall…it didn't vanish! I looked behind her and sure enough, I saw the Fat Body sliding on its stomach towards us. No time to push her out of the way, there was only one thing to do, I called all the strength I could muster and summoned a move.

"Retribution!"

I leaped into the air and flew down towards the Fat Body, aiming my sword downwards and slicing through the Heartless before it could hit her.

_(End: Someday (English Version))_

I panted heavily, I was feeling very tired and very weak, I gave a short moan and fell on my back. My vision was getting blurry as I heard someone call my name, soft hands lift my head and onto their leg, still calling me name.

_I'm so tired… I'll just…rest for now…_

The last thing I heard before I clonked out was the voice calling my name and someone cradling me, then I shut my eyes and heard no more…

* * *

Mark's POV

Man five days into the journey and I feel so warn out, so beaten, but I have to stay on top of my game, I have my brothers to protect and an evil witch to fight!

I stepped down the lone streets of the Second District, my Keyblade strapped behind my back, as more thoughts rushed in my head, and somehow I got to what Goofy would like the most, cake, or a donut?

Ok maybe I had one too many gulps of that sewage water; I needed to take a break.

I sat down at an old looking table, Keyblade in hand just in case some Heartless was planning a sneak attack; I leaned back, looking at the sky… That's till a voice called to my attention.

"Mark Fri, leaving your back open to an attack is the fastest way to get killed," I jumped up, to see a man in a white cloak, the only thing that showed was a long white beard, it was him!

I pointed my finger up at him and growled out these words, "You."

"What's with the anger? Isn't this what you wanted, to travel the worlds with Sora?" He asked as he sat down in a chair next to me.

"Not like this, it wasn't! You're putting my family in danger with this stupid adventure!" I yelled at him, trying to get him to understand my point.

"Actually, this is what I wanted to talk to you about, your family is now going to put you in danger, well more like Michael," he snapped his fingers and I fell to the ground, gripping my head in pain as images of a dead Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Matt were lined up on the ground. I could see myself, gripping my Keyblade, with blood running down the side of my face.

"Michael! You have to stop!" the Mark yelled as Michael put his blade to 'Marks' neck.

"This, is your destiny," he brought the Keyblade up and just as he was about to slam the blade down when the images stopped.

"He caught you guys by surprise," the man said as he watched me get up from the floor.

"I don't know what you did to me, but that was not Michael!" I yelled, sadness filling my voice.

"His darkness is taking control of him; you need to get him to move on from this scarred past," he said as he reached into his pocket and through me a badge that read Knights, "You are the one I want."

"For… What…?" I asked as I study the badge.

"To lead my Knights. You have the power, the intelligence, the courage, plus, you're willing to go beyond all to save someone," He said as he got up and slowly walked away.

"H- Hey you just can't walk away like that!" I yelled as I ran after him.

"Go to the First District; there is someone just like you there." With that a portal opened and he walked into it.

"Someone like me?" I asked as I turned to the First District.

Right then a explosion of power filled the First District, I was stunned at first but then ran to help anyone.

I pushed open the doors and ran to where Cid's shop was, there standing was two men, one had an odd looking armor on, it was like bright blue scales lined on his chest, he had a white under shirt on, his pants was blue, he had a belt lined with throwing knifes, and a katana, the other man was covered in a black cloak, and with two bright red beam swords coming from the inside of his cloaks arms, but that couldn't have been who I thought it was, could it?

"Why does SeeD want what I have? There is no way any of you could use it?" The man who was in a dark cloak asked.

The other man chuckled softly, "really, I have no idea what you have, just that you stole it from someone, and I can't have that."

"Say your last words SeeD!" He rushed at the SeeD with speed that I have never seen before jumping into the air slamming his blade to the SeeD member.

He drawls his blade blocking it, the strike bending his back under the weight, "Sorry I don't plan on giving up on life just yet," the SeeD said as he throws the blade lock away sweeping his arms, shooting knives.

The other man spins his bright red blades, blocking the knives landing on the ground, both warriors without damage.

This time the man in the cloak shoots out white lighting at him, the SeeD member puts up a shield what I saw a Shell, the lighting hit the shield some piercing it hitting him.

"Fine…Play with magic if you want," the SeeD said as he cast Haste on himself letting him laterally run up walls for instate he jumped off the wall, spinning in air throwing barrage of knives at his target, each of them becoming enchanted with Lighting element as they fly to him.

His eyes widen as the knives fly to him, he tries to block them the same way, but they ended up going right through his blades and hitting him making him groan in pain. Then when I looked I saw a chain fall out of his pocket, I gasped, it was a Keychain! Then something was calling out to me…. Was it the Keychain? Then the hooded man rushed at the other one, trying to keep up with him.

The SeeD smiled matching the man strike to strike, "Is this allyou've got? Come on, you can do better than this!" He flips back again, casting a Blizzaga spell on the ground and sending it towards the hooded man as a wave of icicles sprouting from the ground in a line.

He jumped out of the way onto a building, then he realized that the Keychain was missing, he looked back to the Keychain and rushed to it. I took out my blade and rushed to the keychain hoping they wouldn't see me, I was reaching out to pick it up when he felt a sharp pain on my fingers and a large sickening crunch.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" I yelled, my fingers red hot, the man picked up the Keychain, and looked at me, raising his blade to finish me. But then he saw my blade.

"A Keyblade?"

Who knows what he was going to do next, but thanks to that SeeD he didn't get a chance, he launched another Blizzaga spell, this time at the man's side, as he ran towards him.  
"Your fight's with me, pal!"

He cuts the Blizzaga and turns to him, this time much faster he charged at the SeeD member; I gripped my hand, casting Cure on me. I looked up at the two watching them battle.

The SeeD member didn't even bother using his sword this time, instead electing to turn his running momentum into a leap at the figure, coming across in a spinning kick aimed at roughly shoulder level on the man, he tried to move out of the way, but he moved to fast hitting him. He flipped back, growling angrily. He warped above the SeeD member, aiming his sword right down at his head. The SeeD member growled, stepping to the side and swatting the blade off course with his own as it came down. Energy gathered in his left hand, albeit at a lower level of power than he would normally cast the spell - he didn't want to destroy the surroundings, just hit his opponent with a good shot.

"Flare!" A beam of energy sprang from his hand, crossing the distance between SeeD and his opponent in a blink.

The man turned and was hit; he stood still the keychain once again falling from his hands. He looked at SeeD and laughed.

"Mister Powell we will meet again."

_Powell?_ I thought as the man opened up a dark portal and ran through it. The battle had been won.

I looked over at the man, "Hey!"

He was silent for a moment, first moving over and picking up the keychain to examine it, " Interesting little trinket..."

He looked satisfied that it didn't appear to be damaged, he turned to me.

"Hm?"

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" I had forgotten one thing: this man didn't belong in this world.

"Here and there." He shrugged

It seems he didn't really feel like explaining anything, so it looked like he decided to go with the all-purpose tool for hiding things - vagueness.

"I'm Mark, Mark Angelus Fri. What's your name?" I smiled.

"Benji Powell. Everyone just calls me Ben, though," he answered plainly

"It's nice to meet you, Ben." Then it hit me, "wait... How did you get here?"

He thought for a moment, "Teleported."

His tone of voice made it sound like he thought this was the most normal thing in the world - in actuality, nothing was further from the truth.

"Teleport?" It was time to confirm the obvious, "You aren't from around here, are you?"

"Not in the slightest," He smiled, just slightly.

_Ok, this is weird. Wait, if he can teleport maybe he knows this world._

"Have you heard of a world called Earth?" I may have looked a bit disparate.

He nods, connecting the dots fairly easily, "Your home, I assume?"

"Yes, me and my brothers need a way back. Can you help?" All I really wanted was for my brothers to be sent back, I could stay.

"Unfortunately...I don't think so. I can't teleport others around, just myself." But in reality it was different, it was all blatant lie, and he knew it, but he had a reason. He knew that if we were from Earth, then someone or something had brought them here like the Fayth had done with him and that they had a role to play. He wasn't about to try and go against that.

At the time I never knew that.

But..." I sighed, "Well, what are you planning to do next?"

He shrugged. "I don't quite know yet. I figure that I'll think of something soon enough. Relaxing for a while might do me some good."

I snapped his fingers "I know! I will have to bring you to meet Michael and Matt!"

He thought for a moment.

"Alright."

"Great!" I had to think about where to go though, "We are supposed to meet them at Merlin's house, which is that way!"

I pointed ahead running that way.

Ben nodded running after me; things were just starting to get interesting. _There are more like us._

* * *

Matt's POV

As I made my way to a shop I couldn't help but think I was being followed, I looked around but nothing was in sight, I sighed.

"Stop it Matt," I said to myself trying to keep awake I looked up and saw something

"Crud!" I yelped as I dodge a Heartless, it was big and slow so I thought it was going to be easy. I lunged at it the Heartless raised his fist and slammed into me, it was slow, but stronger. Then some more of the big Heartless came now there were at least five of them.

"Well, I guess I will have to use Anima Overload!" I yelled, soon my armor, wings, and my Aero shield came, I leaped into the air and started to slash at my enemies, they didn't stand a chance. After I defeated them I reverted from my form.

"Now to the shop," I said with a smirk. I put my Keyblade away and began walking to the shop. _I swear I feel like I'm being watched._

"That's because you are." someone said from behind me I turned fast while summoning my Keyblade, he had brown hair, grey and black zip up jacket, blue jean pants, and pale skin.

"Who are you?" I asked he also drew his blade.

"I'm Eclipse," he said with a smile and ran at me pulling a sword out and slicing at me.

I quickly dodged and countered, but he blocked it then he jumped back this time. I ran at him and slashed, he put his blade up, putting me into a sword lock. He pushed hard then he brought his sword with mine and kicked me away I got back up, growling.

"Fira!" he yelled soon Fira came at me

"Blizzard!" I yelled back disabling his Fira, but he was gone I looked behind me he was there he stabbed my shoulder.

"Ahhhhh!" I yelled in pain, I took the blade and pulled it out of my shoulder

"You're going to pay!" I said.

I sliced at his legs but he jumped and sliced down, I rolled out of the way and jabbed at him, he dodged and caught my Keyblade.

"Please, you're no match to me," Eclipse said.

To his surprise I grinned, "Gotcha."

"What?" He asked, suddenly worried.

"Blizzard!" I yelled.

I send it at him a hit him hard enough the freeze one of his arms solid. He growled and glared at me with hateful eyes/

"I'll get you next time," he said as a portal behind him opened up and he walked in.

"What the heck…" I said to myself, but then I looked at my shoulder and saw it was bleeding out.

"Crud," I muttered, I reached into a pocket took out a piece of cloth and wrapped it around my shoulder.

"Some night this is," I said as I winced in pain, I put my Keyblade away and started walking to the store.

"I need a potion" I said to the store clerk.

He took out a potion and handed it to me.

"59 munny," the store clerk said.

I handed him the money and drank the potion, I almost spit it back because it was bitter and sour at the same time though. I swallowed it and walked out to see people running in panic.

_Huh? What's happing out here?_ I thought I looked around to see Heartless running through the Gates of the Second District. Almost instantly I drew my blade, but not fast enough, I was knocked away by a Fat Body. I hit the ground, hard. I got back up, but then got tackled by a Shadow Heartless, I threw it off me then rolled behind the Large Body, jumped in the air, and slashed it. When I landed I quickly turned around to see a Shadow Heartless about to jump me, I stabbed it. Then I heard a scream and turned to see a Heartless just turn a human into a Heartless, I ran to the person and sliced the Heartless but I was too late. He was already turned, it punched me twice then gave a uppercut sending me into the air. I had to think fast; if I land from this height, I _will_ die. I quickly stabbed my sword into the wall of a building to slow my fall. It helped somewhat; it softened my landing enough to keep me from dying. I got up and took a look around: all the Heartless was gone.

_What the heck? Where did they go?_ I thought, _I'll try Second District. _I ran to the Second District and saw someone on the ground, _Hey that looks like Michael and Yuffie …wait that is Michael and Yuffie!_ I ran to greet him, but he was knocked out. I stared in horror at the sight.

"What— what happened?" I asked as I bent next Michael.

"I think the battle overwhelmed him," she was as shocked I was.

"We have to get him to safety, this place is crawling with Heartless," Just as I said that, more Heartless slithered from the walls and street. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear..."

I sighed as I stood up. Michael was out cold, so it was just Yuffie and me up against all these Heartless… what fun, right?

* * *

Hey, cool chapter huh? I thought it was anyway; well tell us what you thought of it reviews would be awesome, flames will be ignored.


End file.
